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collective memory

American  

noun

  1. a memory or memories shared or recollected by a group, as a community or culture.

  2. any collection of memories passed from one generation to the next.


collective memory British  

noun

  1. the shared memories of a group, family, race, etc

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

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See Examples For:

Twitter discontinued the app in 2017 after a four-year run, but its weird and wonderful videos have lived on in the collective memory of the Very Online ever since.

From The Wall Street Journal Aug. 19, 2026

It wasn't just a stadium; it was part of our collective memory.

From BBC Jun. 22, 2026

In your introduction, you quote Yale Law School’s Jack Balkin, reflecting upon “the use of collective memory in a constitutional argument.”

From Slate Mar. 16, 2026

But the potlucks of my childhood blur together into a kind of beige collective memory.

From Salon Mar. 15, 2026

The old words of the song burned into their collective memory.

From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy

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