arsenal

noun

ar·​se·​nal ˈärs-nəl 

ˈär-sə-

1

a

: an establishment for the manufacture or storage of arms and military equipment

The city is home to a federal arsenal.

b

: a collection of weapons

2

: store, repertoire

the team's arsenal of veteran players

Synonyms

• armory
• depot
• dump
• magazine

Examples of arsenal in a Sentence

The city is home to a federal arsenal.

Doctors have a broad arsenal of medicines to choose from.

the team's arsenal of veteran players

Recent Examples on the Web

Last year, Russia suspended its participation from New START, an agreement that sought to put verifiable limits on Washington’s and Moscow’s nuclear arsenals. —Alexander Smith, NBC News, 5 Dec. 2024

Other high-profile targets last year included the leadership of the People's Liberation Army Rocket Force, which led to international concerns over Xi's grip on the branch tasked with overseeing China's nuclear weapons arsenal. —Jason Fields, Newsweek, 5 Dec. 2024

The 1994 Budapest Memorandums, in which Ukraine gave up its nuclear arsenal to Russia, included security guarantees from Russia that were broken. —Brad Dress, The Hill, 4 Dec. 2024

If domestic political instability were to derail these partnerships, leading to a hypothetical attempt to build up its nuclear arsenal, these specific contracts would be imperiled, as would the broader green energy transition and the future of civilian nuclear power. —Ariel Cohen, Forbes, 4 Dec. 2024

Word History

Etymology

earlier, "dockyard for the construction and repair of naval vessels," borrowed from Middle French archenal, arsenail, arsenal (in reference to the naval dockyard of Venice), borrowed (with conformation of the final to -al -al entry 2) from Upper Italian (Venice) arzanà, presumably alteration (by metanalysis, with the initial taken as the preposition d', di "from") of darsenà (attested in Genoese, earlier in Medieval Latin as darsena, darsana), borrowed from Arabic dār al-ṣināʽa "place of manufacture," from dār "house" + al "the" (assimilated to aṣ) + ṣināʽa "manufacture" (derivative of ṣanaʽa "to make")

Note: Forms with final -ale (as arsenale, arzanale, arzenale) are attested in Italian in the sixteenth century and may be the immediate source of the English word. The French forms with -al may reflect these, though attested about a century earlier. As arzanà the Venetian word is attested in the text of Dante's Inferno ("nell'arzanà de' Viniziani," XXI, 7).

First Known Use

1555, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Kids Definition

arsenal

noun

ar·​se·​nal ˈärs-nəl 

-ᵊn-əl

1

: a place for the manufacture or storage of arms

2

: a collection of weapons