archive

American  

[ahr-kahyv] / ˈɑr kaɪv /

noun

1. Usually archives. documents or records relating to the activities, business dealings, etc., of a person, family, corporation, association, community, or nation.

2. archives, a place where public records or other historical documents are kept.

3. any extensive record or collection of data.

   The encyclopedia is an archive of world history. The experience was sealed in the archive of her memory.

4. Digital Technology.

   1. a long-term storage device, as a disk or magnetic tape, or a computer directory or folder that contains copies of files for backup or future reference.

   2. a collection of digital data stored in this way.

   3. a computer file containing one or more compressed files.

   4. a collection of information permanently stored on the internet.

      The magazine has its entire archive online, from 1923 to the present.

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verb (used with object)

archived, archiving

1. to place or store in an archive.

   to vote on archiving the city's historic documents.

2. Digital Technology. to compress (computer files) and store them in a single file.

archive British  

/ ˈɑːkaɪv /

noun

1. a collection of records of or about an institution, family, etc

2. a place where such records are kept

3. computing data transferred to a tape or disk for long-term storage rather than frequent use

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verb

1. to store (documents, data, etc) in an archive or other repository

Other Word Forms

• archival
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of archive

First recorded in 1595–1605; originally, as plural, from French archives, from the Late Latin plural noun archīva, archīa “public records,” from Greek archeîa “public records,” plural of archeîon “town hall, public office,” equivalent to archḗ “magistracy, office” + -eion suffix of location

Explanation

An archive is a collection of older things — documents, books, movies, or something else — that's meant to preserve them. Archives tell us about history. An archive involves old stuff — specifically, a collection of old stuff, often put together by a librarian. Newspaper archives collect old newspapers, usually all copies of a paper from a certain date onward. There are movie and music archives. Most museums have many types of archives within them. And it's always a good idea to keep an archive of important files on your computer. When you put something in an archive, you're archiving it.

Example Sentences

The accounts have been taken down, but much of their contents remain accessible on the Internet Archive.

From Los Angeles Times • May 3, 2026

The Los Angeles art and design school shared a statement from the Charles White Archive, which said, “Jenkins had a profound impact on contemporary art and media practices.”

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 2, 2026

The results were published in Graefe's Archive for Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology.

From Science Daily • Jan. 16, 2026

Here, he draws from a vast cache of sample CDs from the ’90s that he found browsing the Internet Archive.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 18, 2025

“But people could read it. The Scythe Archive is open to everyone.”

From "Scythe" by Neal Shusterman

Related Words

• annals