depository

[dih-poz-i-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee]

noun

plural

depositories 

1. a place where something is deposited or stored, as for safekeeping.

   the night depository of a bank.

2. a depositary; trustee.

adjective

1. of or relating to a depository or depositories.

   the depository role of a bank.

depository

/ -trɪ, dɪˈpɒzɪtərɪ /

noun

1. a store, such as a warehouse, for furniture, valuables, etc; repository

2. a variant spelling of depositary

Other Word Forms

• nondepository adjective
• predepository noun
• subdepository noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of depository¹

1650–60; depository ( def. 1 ) < Medieval Latin dēpositōrium; depository ( def. 2 ) deposit + -ory ¹ (noun use of adj. suffix)

Word History and Origins

Origin of depository¹

C17 (in the sense: place of a deposit): from Medieval Latin dēpositōrium ; C18 (in the sense: depositary): see _deposit , _-ory ¹

Example Sentences

As of now, the only federal agency that explicitly monitors banks and other depository institutions for abusing consumers is on life support.

From Salon

Officials arrested a worker in the book depository building named Lee Harvey Oswald, a former Marine and Marxist sympathizer who at one point tried to become a citizen of the Soviet Union.

From Los Angeles Times

The Kiteezi landfill was built in 1996, with financing from the World Bank, to provide a single, major depository for solid waste generated by Kampala.

From BBC

About 190 billion euros of Russian central bank assets are held by Belgium’s central securities depository, Euroclear.

From New York Times

Some of the cash was wrapped in bands showing it had been withdrawn, at least $10,000 at a time, from a bank where Menendez and his wife “had no known depository account.”

From Seattle Times

Related Words

• cache 
• repository 
• storehouse