annotate

verb

an·​no·​tate ˈa-nə-ˌtāt 

annotated; annotating

intransitive verb

: to make or furnish critical or explanatory notes or comment

transitive verb

: to make or furnish annotations (see annotation sense 1) for (something, such as a literary work or subject)

annotated his translation of Dante's Divine Comedy

annotative

ˈa-nə-ˌtā-tiv 

adjective

annotator

ˈa-nə-ˌtā-tər 

noun

Examples of annotate in a Sentence

He annotated the text at several places.

Recent Examples on the Web

Data review by humans: Conversations with Gemini may be reviewed and annotated by human reviewers for quality control and AI training purposes. —Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 14 July 2025

The conversation has been lightly edited, condensed and annotated. —Tim Britton, New York Times, 10 July 2025

This collection is annotated with the weight of each fish. —Mike Raabe, Outdoor Life, 2 July 2025

The company has a trove of around 100,000 videos of cows that have been annotated and scored by veterinarians for observed health, and are used for training the models. —Chris Stokel-Walker, Fortune, 26 June 2025

Word History

Etymology

Latin annotatus, past participle of annotare, from ad- + notare to mark — more at note

First Known Use

1693, in the meaning defined at transitive sense

Rhymes for annotate

• abdicate
• abrogate
• acetate
• activate
• actuate
• adsorbate
• aggravate
• agitate
• alginate
• alienate
• allocate
• amputate

Kids Definition

annotate

verb

an·​no·​tate ˈan-ə-ˌtāt 

annotated; annotating

: to make or add explanatory notes

annotator

-ˌtāt-ər 

noun

Legal Definition

annotate

verb

an·​no·​tate ˈa-nə-ˌtāt 

annotated; annotating

intransitive verb

: to make or write an annotation

transitive verb

: to make or write annotations for

annotator

-ˌtā-tər 

noun