depository
Americannoun
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depositories
plural
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a place where something is deposited or stored, as for safekeeping.
the night depository of a bank.
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a depositary; trustee.
adjective
noun
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a store, such as a warehouse, for furniture, valuables, etc; repository
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a variant spelling of depositary
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of depository
1650–60; depository ( def. 1 ) < Medieval Latin dēpositōrium; depository ( def. 2 ) deposit + -ory 1 (noun use of adj. suffix)
Explanation
A depository is a place where things are kept or stored. You might call your city's Natural History Museum a depository of local dinosaur fossils. A library could also be called a book depository, since books are stored there, and the official name of Fort Knox, which once stored much of the gold in the US, is the United States Bullion Depository. The word depository literally means "place where things are deposited," from the Latin root deponere, "lay aside or deposit," combining de-, "away," and ponere, "to put."
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:
A $26 billion-plus sale of American depository receipts from the South Korean chip-making company SK Hynix.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
Oracle already sold $5 billion in depository shares for mandatory convertible preferred stock in February.
From Barron's ● Jun. 2, 2026
On an adjusted basis, it lost 9 cents per American depository receipt.
From MarketWatch ● May 26, 2026
SK Hynix said it has submitted an application with the Securities and Exchange Commission to make its Korea-listed shares available on a U.S. exchange through American depository receipts.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 25, 2026
Chicago’s small but vocal censorians feared that impoverished parents would turn the building into a depository for unwanted children.
From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson
A-M Global Logistics operates a network of distribution hubs and secure depositories, capable of moving physical bullion at scale.
From Barron's ● Apr. 16, 2026
When that crisis affects the credibility of banks—whether they are fiduciaries, depositories or custodians of crypto assets—it puts the entire banking system and perhaps the economy at risk.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 2, 2026
The city-centre depositories, promising instant deliveries of popular grocery items, blossomed during Covid lockdown.
From BBC ● Jul. 19, 2023
On Monday, the Bank of Russia ordered depositories and registries operating on the securities market to freeze security sales by foreigners.
From Reuters ● Mar. 2, 2022
They are the natural depositories of what we have of memorial and of records; the original entries of legislation and of achievement.
From The Library and Society Reprints of Papers and Addresses by Arthur Elmore Bostwick
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.
