footnote

• f.n. (abbreviation)

From foot +‎ note.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈfʊtˌnəʊt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈfʊtˌnoʊt/

footnote (plural footnotes)

1. A short piece of text, often numbered, placed at the bottom of a printed page, that adds a comment, citation, reference etc, to a designated part of the main text.

   Coordinate terms: headnote, endnote, hatnote, marginal note

   consult the footnotes for more details

2. (by extension) An event of lesser importance than some larger event to which it is related.

   a mere footnote in history

   • 2014, Michael White, "Roll up, roll up! The Amazing Salmond will show a Scotland you won't believe", The Guardian, 8 September 2014:

     In that context Scotland's fate is a modest element, a symptom of wider fragmentation of the current global order, a footnote to the fall of empire and the Berlin Wall, important to us and punchdrunk neighbours like France and Italy, a mere curiosity to emerging titans like Brazil.

• footnote in history

footnote (third-person singular simple present footnotes, present participle footnoting, simple past and past participle footnoted)

1. To add footnotes to a text.

   Synonym: annotate

• marginalia
• reference mark

• footnote on Wikipedia.Wikipedia