archive

[ahr-kahyv]

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 archives, a place where public records or other historical documents are kept.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

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

/ 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

verb

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

Other Word Forms

• archival adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of archive¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of archive¹

C17: from Late Latin archīvum, from Greek arkheion repository of official records, from arkhē government

Example Sentences

I’d recently started writing my novel, “King of the Armadillos,” inspired by his experience, and he was helping me access material from the archives of the National Hansen’s Disease Museum.

Read more on Salon

Warsaw had been asking for the return of the Teutonic Order archives since 1948.

Read more on Barron's

The government department in charge of these archives is a bureaucratic mouthful: the Authority for Information Concerning Documentation of the Former State Security Service.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

The station's archived tapes have also recently been digitised and are publicly available at Manchester's Central Library.

Read more on BBC

Trustees revisited Buck and York’s research and conducted checks in the Timken’s archives.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• annals