journal
Americannoun
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journals
plural
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a daily record, as of occurrences, experiences, or observations.
She kept a journal during her European trip.
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a newspaper, especially a daily one.
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a periodical or magazine, especially one published for a special group, learned society, or profession.
the October issue of The English Journal.
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a record, usually daily, of the proceedings and transactions of a legislative body, an organization, etc.
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Bookkeeping.
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a daybook.
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(in the double-entry method) a book into which all transactions are entered from the daybook or blotter to facilitate posting into the ledger.
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Nautical. a log or logbook.
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Machinery. the portion of a shaft or axle contained by a plain bearing.
verb (used without object)
noun
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a newspaper or periodical
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a book in which a daily record of happenings, etc, is kept
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an official record of the proceedings of a legislative body
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accounting
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Also called: Book of Original Entry. one of several books in which transactions are initially recorded to facilitate subsequent entry in the ledger
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another name for daybook
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the part of a shaft or axle in contact with or enclosed by a bearing
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a plain cylindrical bearing to support a shaft or axle
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of journal
First recorded in 1325–75; Middle English, from Old French journal “daily,” from Late Latin diurnālis; see diurnal
Explanation
If you keep a daily––or at least somewhat regular––written account of your life, you are keeping a diary or journal. A journal is also a periodical, such as a scientific journal or a scholarly journal. Journal comes from an Old French word which meant daily (jour being the French word for day, as in soup du jour, or “soup of the day”). You can keep a journal in an old notebook, on the computer, or on scraps of paper, but if you keep it in a book made especially for that purpose, then that physical book (whether you've written in it or not) is called a journal.
Vocabulary lists containing journal
TEKS ELAR Academic Vocabulary List (5th-7th grades)
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Hole in My Life
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Writing - Introductory
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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.
See Examples For:
The findings come from a comprehensive analysis of available data from 2019-24 published in the open-access journal BMJ Public Health.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 15, 2026
The findings have now been published in the renowned journal Cell Reports.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 14, 2026
The study was published in the scientific journal Nature Climate Change.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 14, 2026
What is one to make of Emerson’s journal entry “I feel the centipede in me” after visiting Paris’s Jardin des Plantes in 1833?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
The scientific journal Science puts Brainvox's images of the pierced skull on its cover and it causes a sensation.
From "Phineas Gage" by John Fleischman
The bureaucratic, multistep process for bringing new shots to market used to be the uncontroversial stuff of trade publications and medical journals, not national news.
From Slate ● Aug. 6, 2026
This revelation comes just days after copies of Fauci’s journals were publicly released following their transfer from HHS to Congress.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026
On Thursday a notice was published in The Gazette, external - one of the UK's official journals of record - stating that Charles III had directed the cancellation of Donaldson's knighthood.
From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026
The diminishing returns of instant gratification might explain why catalogs are nearly always, according to trade publications and business journals, on the verge of a renaissance.
From Salon ● Jul. 18, 2026
He’d searched old journals and bundled correspondences, spies’ reports, maps and treaties, trade ledgers and the minutes of royal secretaries, and anything else he could dig up.
From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor
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.
