repository

American  

[ri-poz-i-tawr-ee] / rɪˈpɒz ɪˌtɔr i /

noun

• repositories
  plural

1. a receptacle or place where things are deposited, stored, or offered for sale.

   a repository for discarded clothing.

   Synonyms:

   depository, storehouse, depot

2. an abundant source or supply; storehouse.

   a repository of information.

3. a person to whom something is entrusted or confided.

4. a burial place; sepulcher.

5. Informal, repo.  Computers. a collection of stored data or software, or the place where it is stored, often a proprietary site in the cloud.

   The company hosts a cloud-based repository to help software developers store, track, and manage changes to their code.

6. Chiefly British. warehouse.

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repository British  

/ rɪˈpɒzɪtərɪ, -trɪ /

noun

1. a place or container in which things can be stored for safety

2. a place where things are kept for exhibition; museum

3. a place where commodities are kept before being sold; warehouse

4. a place of burial; sepulchre

5. a receptacle containing the relics of the dead

6. a person to whom a secret is entrusted; confidant

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• repositories
  plural

Etymology

Origin of repository

1475–85; < Latin repositōrium that in which anything is placed; see reposit, -tory ²

Explanation

Think of a repository as a storehouse, a place where things are kept until needed. A silo is a repository for animal feed, and a trivia buff's mind is a repository for useless information. The noun repository has a somewhat formal ring to it — why not just call a storehouse a storehouse, right? Think of a repository as somewhat more important and imposing than just a place to dump stuff. It has more of an air of authority, like the things stored there could change the world. Consider nuclear waste — would you rather store it in a dump or a repository? I don’t know about you, but I'd prefer the latter—sounds safer.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

repository repositories

Earlier this year, AI agents were able to escape OpenAI safeguards and breach the systems of Hugging Face, a repository for open-source AI tools.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 12, 2026

Many have never been able to bury a loved one, but some families choose to leave the remains - once found - at a repository at the 9/11 memorial site in New York.

From BBC ● Sep. 10, 2026

The specimens he recovered are now permanently preserved in major repository museums.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 5, 2026

This summer, President Volodymyr Zelensky launched an online platform called TrophyLab, a digital repository devoted to the analysis of captured Russian military equipment.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026

It was a compound, Fjerda’s ancient stronghold, home to an unbroken succession of kings and queens, repository of their greatest treasures and most sacred religious relics.

From "Six of Crows" by Leigh Bardugo

In Norway, Cohen explains that the data center is “one of the central repositories of human memory.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026

Rather than relying exclusively on archival institutional repositories, the studio executed specialized field expeditions to a variety of distinct global environments to gather raw primary telemetry like detailed images, LiDAR scans, weather data and sound.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 2026

Final repositories are being built in other countries, including neighbouring Sweden and France, but Finland is expected to be first to open an underground storage solution.

From Barron's ● Jun. 1, 2026

The publication reported sequencing data and genome assembly resources deposited in public repositories.

From Science Daily ● May 7, 2026

Toothless old people, the repositories of information in a preliterate society, could now be fed and live longer.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

Related Words

• archive
• depository
• storehouse