trivia

From Latin trivia, plural of trivium (“place where three roads meet”). The term came to be used for any public place, and then for anything commonplace. Furthermore, because the beginners' course at university was called trivium, the word came to be used only for anything basic, simple and trivial.

• (Canada, UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈtɹɪvi.ə/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪviə

trivia (countable and uncountable, plural trivia or trivias)

1. Insignificant trifles of little importance, especially items of unimportant information; froth.

   These trivia take up too much of the day.

   This trivia takes up too much of the day.

   • 1943 December, Herbert L. Bregstein, “The Armored Force and the Camera”, in Popular Photography, volume 13, number 6, page 77:

     There is the story of the famous Hollywood glamour photographer who cooled his heels around Washington for three months while waiting for one of our leading commanders, and then was granted exactly 15 minutes for the sitting. […] Our military leaders simply don't have time for such trivia. Thank God!

2. A quiz game that involves obscure facts.

   I joined the trivia club this semester!

• Formerly, as a word derived from a Latin plural, trivia required a plural verb, as in the first usage example above. Most modern authorities accept a singular verb, and this may be the preferred usage in the US. The "game" sense is always regarded as a singular noun.

trivia

1. plural of trivium

Learned borrowing from Latin trivia.

• IPA^(key): /ˈtriʋiɑ/, [ˈt̪riʋiɑ̝]
• Rhymes: -iʋiɑ
• Syllabification^(key): tri‧vi‧a
• Hyphenation^(key): tri‧via

trivia

1. trivia

• “trivia”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎^[1] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 3 July 2023

The noun is a feminine substantive from trivius (“having three approaches”), from tri- (“three”) +‎ via (“road; way”).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈtrɪ.wi.a]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈtriː.vi.a]

trivia

1. inflection of trivius:
   1. nominative/vocative feminine singular
   2. nominative/accusative/vocative neuter plural

trivia f (genitive triviae or triviāī, masculine trivius); first declension

1. (Classical Latin) goddess worshipped at a place where three ways meet

First-declension noun.

trivia n

1. nominative/accusative/vocative plural of trivium

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈtrɪ.wi.aː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈtriː.vi.a]

triviā

1. ablative feminine singular of trivius

triviā f

1. ablative feminine singular of trivia

• “trivia”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “trivia”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• trivia in Georges, Karl Ernst; Georges, Heinrich (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th edition, volume 2, Hahnsche Buchhandlung

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɾibja/ [ˈt̪ɾi.β̞ja]
• Rhymes: -ibja
• Syllabification: tri‧via

trivia f (plural trivias)

1. trivia