Episode

How to spell episode

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce episode

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does episode mean?

1. nounA single instalment of a serialised television or radio programme, or a podcast.
2. nounA distinct or notable event or period within a larger sequence of events.

Episode in a sentence

• The final episode of the drama aired last night.

• The strike was a brief episode in an otherwise calm career.

• She downloaded the latest episode of her favourite podcast for the train.

• Doctors recorded a worrying episode of chest pain during the night.

Where does episode come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word comes from the Greek epeisodion, which literally meant 'something coming in besides' or 'an addition'. It was built from epi, meaning 'upon' or 'in addition', and eisodos, meaning 'an entrance' or 'a coming in', itself formed from eis 'into' and hodos 'way' or 'road'. In ancient Greek tragedy the epeisodion was the portion of the action that came in between two choral songs, in other words a self-contained scene, and that theatrical sense is the seed of the modern meaning of a single instalment in a larger story. English picked the word up in the seventeenth century, largely by way of French episode, and gradually widened it from drama to mean any distinct event in a sequence. The shared hodos 'road' root also lurks in 'method' and 'exodus', and remembering that the middle syllable carries that old 'so' from eisodos can help fix the otherwise easily slurred spelling.

How the word is built

• epi- (in addition, upon)
• eisod (from eisodos: entrance, a coming in)
• -e