archive

1 of 2

noun

ar·​chive ˈär-ˌkīv 

1

: a place in which public records or historical materials (such as documents) are preserved

an archive of historical manuscripts

a film archive

also : the material preserved

—often used in plural

reading through the archives

2

: a repository or collection especially of information

archive

2 of 2

verb

archived; archiving

transitive verb

: to file or collect in or as if in an archive

archive documents

archived tissue samples

Synonyms

Noun

• library

Examples of archive in a Sentence

Verb

The organization was devoted to cataloging and archiving printed materials on the labor movement.

She archived her e-mail messages in a folder on her hard drive.

a collection of archived articles

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

Sources: Chicago Bears; Tribune archives: NFL Subscribe to the free Vintage Chicago Tribune newsletter, join our Chicagoland history Facebook group and follow us on Instagram for more from Chicago’s past. —Kori Rumore, Chicago Tribune, 2 Dec. 2024

Factiva's archive is constantly updated and contains more than two billion articles with the oldest dating back to 1944. —Caroline Reid, Forbes, 2 Dec. 2024

Verb

First responders were told that a man had shot someone in the head and that the shooter was standing outside of one of the rooms with a gun still in his hand, according to first responder radio transmissions archived by the streaming site Broadcastify. —Lisa J. Huriash, Sun Sentinel, 29 Nov. 2024

One Hugging Face user has archived over 80 videos, providing download links to the videos and their prompt. —Yaakov Katz, Newsweek, 27 Nov. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Noun and Verb

French & Latin; French, from Latin archivum, from Greek archeion government house (in plural, official documents), from archē rule, government — more at arch-

First Known Use

Noun

1603, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Verb

1831, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

archive

1 of 2 noun

ar·​chive ˈär-ˌkīv 

1

: a place in which public records or historical documents are preserved

also : the material preserved

—usually used in plural

2

: a collection of information

archive

2 of 2 verb

archived; archiving

: to file or collect in or as if in an archive

was archiving documents