archive
Americannoun
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archives
plural
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Usually archives. documents or records relating to the activities, business dealings, etc., of a person, family, corporation, association, community, or nation.
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archives, a place where public records or other historical documents are kept.
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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.
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Digital Technology.
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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.
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a collection of digital data stored in this way.
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a computer file containing one or more compressed files.
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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)
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archives,
present (3rd person singular)
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archived,
past participle, past
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archiving
present participle
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to place or store in an archive.
to vote on archiving the city's historic documents.
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Digital Technology. to compress (computer files) and store them in a single file.
noun
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a collection of records of or about an institution, family, etc
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a place where such records are kept
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computing data transferred to a tape or disk for long-term storage rather than frequent use
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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archivesimple
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archivessimple
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have archivedperfect
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has archivedperfect
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am archivingprogressive
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are archivingprogressive
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is archivingprogressive
-
have been archivingperfect progressive
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has been archivingperfect progressive
Past
-
archivedsimple
-
had archivedperfect
-
was archivingprogressive
-
were archivingprogressive
-
had been archivingperfect progressive
Future
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.
Vocabulary lists containing archive
Play by the Rules: Arch
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The View from Saturday
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arch
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
When push came to shove, the human with the archive was always right.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026
If characteristic patches of preserved collagen can be recognized in those older images, researchers may already have a large archive of fossils worth examining with newer protein analysis techniques.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 14, 2026
Meta joined the pledge in 2016 according to a Wayback Machine archive of RE100's website.
From Barron's ● Jul. 25, 2026
The national archive for the Welsh historic environment has released photographs of Driver's discoveries following flights from Haverfordwest and Caernarfon airport in June and July.
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
For days, I returned to the archive trying to find a financial motive for the killing of Bigheart.
From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann
The author is a dedicated researcher who, in each chapter, digs into archives and personal correspondence to find the most revealing material.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
Some tricks to relieve stress: From the archives, yoga teacher Sara Pam Neufeld shares a workout that takes seconds—and could actually improve your quality of life.
From Slate ● Aug. 18, 2026
Elsewhere, the paper reports on "Iconic Diana dresses revealed among palace archives", embedding a photo of the late Princess of Wales.
From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026
I searched the newspaper archives and found very few stories that mentioned his size back when he was on the “Roseanne” TV series.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026
“It’s the peculiar archives, where all our official records are kept.”
From "Hollow City" by Ransom Riggs
"When someone shares a conversation, they are making that content publicly accessible, and like other public web content, it may be archived by third-party services," the spokeswoman added.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
The department archived and later restored mention of a policy that said the government can’t investigate individuals lawfully protesting government activities.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 1, 2026
Luhrmann didn’t end up using the archived material in “Elvis.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 24, 2026
AFP has archived these files and tracked evolutions in these categories from the very first days of the conflict.
From Barron's ● Feb. 24, 2026
I explained how I’d seen Jesse install operating systems, play online games from chess to Quake, use astonishing ingenuity to gather archived information off the Web.
From "Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet Out of Idaho" by Jon Katz
That sparked an outpouring of grief on social media, with users archiving chat histories and sharing last conversations.
From Barron's ● Jul. 15, 2026
The promotion is part of the brand’s partnership with StoryCorps, an independent nonprofit focused on archiving the stories of everyday people.
From Salon ● Apr. 27, 2026
Through the Electronic Babylonian Library Platform, Jiménez and his team are digitally archiving all known cuneiform fragments from around the world.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 11, 2025
Meanwhile, the Instagram page, Museum of Kashmir, is taking a broader approach to archiving.
From BBC ● Sep. 12, 2025
If archiving this book for BBS use or library use, please include all files and use the name ONLINE10, for example, ONLINE10.ZIP, or ONLINE10.LZH.
From The Online World by Odd De Presno
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
