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 archives, a place where public records or other historical documents are kept.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 archive will be presented in the form of a Q&A session with producer Elene Hadjidaniel.

From BBC • May 25, 2026

Police effectively asked Google to look through a vast archive of human movement and identify which lives intersected with a particular patch of pavement at a particular moment in time.

From Slate • May 20, 2026

By the end of its planned five year primary mission, Roman is expected to collect an enormous archive containing roughly 20,000 terabytes of data.

From Science Daily • May 19, 2026

L.A. photographers are also featured, including Slash magazine co-founder Melanie Nissen and Ann Summa, whose archive is housed at UC Riverside’s California Museum of Photography.

From Los Angeles Times • May 18, 2026

I’ll tell you in a bit, Jam signed back to Redemption as Ube led them into one of the archive rooms.

From "Pet" by Akwaeke Emezi

Related Words

• annals