archivist
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of archivist
From the French word archiviste, dating back to 1745–55. See archive, -ist
Explanation
Do you love collecting and organizing things? You might want to get a job as an archivist, someone who is in charge of cataloguing and maintaining historical documents. Archivists' work involves acquiring and caring for records, papers, books, and items with some kind of historical importance. A collection of these documents is known as an archive, and the place where they're kept is also an archive. Museum archivists carefully organize items, often writing descriptions of each piece and storing them protectively. Other archivists care for the collected writings — including drafts, letters, and diaries — of famous authors.
Vocabulary lists containing archivist
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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.
The cathedral archivist admits to being taken aback by the package, but alongside the skull was a letter of explanation.
From BBC • Oct. 31, 2025
Historians are divided, with Athens' Benaki Museum's head archivist Tasos Sakellaropoulos calling the tomb a "place of silent collective memory and respect, not of pain or anger" in Kathimerini daily.
From Barron's • Oct. 23, 2025
Shortly after I filed my request form, Grace Ávila, the order’s assistant archivist, reached me with the news that Sister Albertine had died at 88 in 1999.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 15, 2025
Arrington was—was!—the director of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library in Kansas, having been appointed to the job by the national archivist last year.
From Slate • Oct. 4, 2025
Brangwain Spurge and the archivist Werfel stood for several minutes, staring around in wonder at what they could see of the underground castle that stretched above them.
From "The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge" by M.T. Anderson and Eugene Yelchin
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.
