episode

/ˌɛpəˈsoʊd/

/ˈɛpɪsəʊd/

Other forms: episodes

Think of your favorite TV show. It runs all year long, in weekly installments. Each of those individual programs is an episode, one part of a long series.

Episode, a term from Greek tragedy, refers to a section of a story. In the 19th century, Charles Dickens published chapters of his novels in weekly magazines, episodes that together made a novel. You can also use the word for events in your own life: "That was an unpleasant episode," when you're remembering a family fight, or, "Grandpa had a fainting episode." With the fighting and fainting, you can hope they're episodes, not the whole story.

Definitions of episode

1. noun

   a happening that is distinctive in a series of related events
   types:

   drama, dramatic event

   an episode that is turbulent or highly emotional

   chapter

   a series of related events forming an episode

   idyll

   an episode of such pastoral or romantic charm as to qualify as the subject of a poetic idyll

   night terror

   an emotional episode (usually in young children) in which the person awakens in terror with feelings of anxiety and fear but is unable to remember any incident that might have provoked those feelings

   type of:

   happening, natural event, occurrence, occurrent

   an event that happens
2. noun

   a part of a broadcast serial
   synonyms: installment, instalment

   types:

   cliffhanger

   an episode that ends in suspense

   type of:

   broadcast, program, programme

   a radio or television show
3. noun

   a brief section of a literary or dramatic work that forms part of a connected series
   type of:

   section, subdivision

   a self-contained part of a larger composition (written or musical)
4. noun

   film consisting of a succession of related shots that develop a given subject in a movie
   synonyms: sequence

   types:

   montage

   a film sequence made by editing together a series of separate scenes or shots

   type of:

   film, photographic film

   photographic material consisting of a base of celluloid covered with a photographic emulsion; used to make negatives or transparencies