of, pertaining to, treating, or characteristic of history or past events

historical records; historical research.

based on or reconstructed from an event, custom, style, etc., in the past

a historical reenactment of the battle of Gettysburg.

having once existed or lived in the real world, as opposed to being part of legend or fiction or as distinguished from religious belief

to doubt that a historical Camelot ever existed; a theologian's study of the historical Jesus.

narrated or mentioned in history; belonging to the past.

noting or pertaining to analysis based on a comparison among several periods of development of a phenomenon, as in language or economics.

historic ( def. 1 ) .

adjective

fictional

adjective

actual , ancient , archival , attested , authentic , chronicled , classical , commemorated , documented , factual , important , in truth , old , past , real , verifiablenotes:historic means \'noteworthy , highly significant , \' whereas historical means \'pertaining to history , relevant to the passage of time\'; if something has a place in history , it is historic , and if something has to do with the subject of history , it is historical