Trivia

How to spell trivia

6 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce trivia

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does trivia mean?

1. nounUnimportant details or scraps of knowledge, especially obscure facts collected for quizzes or amusement.

Trivia in a sentence

• The pub quiz tested everyone on film and sports trivia.

• He loves to recite useless trivia about old television shows.

Where does trivia come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin trivium, which literally meant 'a place where three roads meet', formed from tri- 'three' and via 'road' or 'way'. Trivia is simply its plural form. Because such road junctions were busy, public, open places where ordinary people gathered, the Romans linked the word to common, everyday talk and unimportant matters. In medieval education the trivium also named the three lower liberal arts (grammar, rhetoric, and logic), considered more basic than the higher quadrivium, which reinforced the sense of something elementary. By the early twentieth century English had settled trivia into its modern meaning of small, inconsequential details or scraps of knowledge, and the word surged in popularity once trivia quizzes became a pastime. The spelling preserves the original via, the same Latin root that survives in 'viaduct' and 'via' itself, which is a useful anchor for remembering the single v and the -ia ending.

How the word is built

• tri- (three)
• via (road, way)
• -a (Latin plural ending)