annotated

annotated — verb

IPA/ˈæn.ə.teɪt/
KK[ˈænətˌetəd]IPA/ˈæn.ə.teɪt/
  • annotatedpresent simple I / you / we / they
  • annotateds3rd person singular
  • annotateding-ing form
  • annotatededpast simple

1. To add written explanations, opinions, or comments next to a piece of writing, a

1.verbtransitiveB2
Definition

To add written explanations, opinions, or comments next to a piece of writing, a drawing, or an image so that readers can understand it better.

Example

The professor annotated each poem with historical context for her students.

collocation: annotate + with + [context/notes]

Adina spent the weekend annotating her manuscript before sending it to a publisher.

Common collocations
  • annotate a text/manuscript/copy
  • annotate with notes/comments
  • carefully/heavily annotated
  • annotated edition
Synonyms
  • gloss

    more specific — means to provide brief definitions for difficult words, often between lines

  • footnote

    more specific — refers to adding numbered notes at the bottom of a page

  • comment on

    more general — can be spoken or written, not necessarily attached to the original text

Grammar Patterns

annotate + [text/image] + with + [notes]

Usage Note

Frequently passive. The direct object is the material being annotated (a text, manuscript, or image), not the notes themselves. Common in academic and publishing contexts.

Common Mistakes

I annotated to the manuscript.
I annotated the manuscript.
'annotate' is transitive; you annotate something directly, not to it.
She annotated notes on the page.
She annotated the page with notes.
The notes are what you annotate with, not the direct object of the verb.

2. To mark items in a collection of information — such as texts, images, or recorde

2.verbtransitiveC1
Definition

To mark items in a collection of information — such as texts, images, or recorded speech — with labels that describe, classify, or identify their features, usually for analysis or machine learning.

Example

The research team annotated several thousand tweets with sentiment labels for the study.

collocation: annotate [data] + with + [labels]

Karim annotated the interview recordings to indicate which person was speaking at each moment.

Common collocations
  • annotate data/corpus/transcripts/dataset
  • annotate with labels/tags/categories
  • annotated corpus/dataset
Synonyms
  • tag

    more informal; often used in computing for marking items with short keywords

  • label

    overlapping meaning; suggests assigning a category to each item

  • mark up

    phrasal verb; suggests adding symbols or codes to a text

Grammar Patterns

annotate + [dataset] + with + [labels]

Usage Note

Primarily used in technical contexts such as linguistics, data science, and computing. The object is usually a dataset, corpus, transcript, or collection of items. Typically paired with 'with' to specify the labels or tags.

Common Mistakes

The team annotated the data to images.
The team annotated the images with labels.
The direct object is the material being tagged, not the tags themselves.

annotated — adjective

IPA/ˈænəteɪtɪd/
KK[ˈænətˌetəd]IPA/ˈænəteɪtɪd/

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: verb/1

All four words involve explaining something, but they differ in scope and medium. To annotate means to add notes — comments, questions, or clarifications — anywhere on a page or document, usually for study. To gloss is more specific: it means providing a brief definition or synonym for a difficult word, often between the lines or in the margin. To footnote means to add numbered notes at the bottom of the page, typically to cite sources or give secondary remarks. To comment on is the most general — it can be spoken or written and does not imply that the commentary is attached to the original material. To elucidate is the most formal; it means to make something clear through careful explanation, not necessarily in writing. For example: 'The scholar annotated the poem in the margins' vs. 'The professor glossed the Latin term' vs. 'The editor footnoted each historical reference.'

gloss ↗footnote ↗comment onelucidate ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Prepositions

Etymology

LatinEnglish

From Latin annotatus, the past participle of annotare ('to mark or note upon'), formed from ad- ('to') + notare ('to mark'), which comes from nota ('a mark, sign, or note'). The general sense of adding explanatory comments to a text entered English in the early 1700s. The computing and data-science sense — marking data items with descriptive labels — emerged in the late twentieth century.

First known use

1786

1786, in the meaning defined above