arch
UK/ɑːt͡ʃ//ɑɹt͡ʃ/
arch noun: an inverted U shape.
Noun (1)
arch (plural arches)
- An inverted U shape.
- An arch-shaped arrangement of trapezoidal stones, designed to redistribute downward force outward.
- An architectural element having the shape of an arch
- Any place covered by an arch; an archway.
- to pass into the arch of a bridge
- An arc; a part of a curve.
- A natural arch-shaped opening in a rock mass.
- The curved part of the bottom of a foot.
Verb
arch (third-person singular simple present arches, present participle arching, simple past and past participle arched)
- To form into an arch shape.
- The cat arched its back.
- GBR will either be letting operating contracts or running rail companies directly, depending on which party wins the next General Election. Whichever it is, you can be forgiven for arching an eyebrow at an infrastructure company being placed in overall control.2024 March 6, Philip Haigh, “Comment: Who will run our railways?”, in RAIL, number 1004, page 3
- To cover with an arch or arches.
Adjective (1)
arch (comparative archer, superlative archest)
- Knowing, clever, mischievous.
- I attempted to hide my emotions, but an arch remark escaped my lips.
- [He] spoke his request with so arch a leer.1710 July 14 (Gregorian calendar), Isaac Bickerstaff [et al., pseudonyms; Richard Steele et al.], “Monday, July 4, 1710”, in The Tatler, number 193; republished in [Richard Steele], editor, The...
- Cute, sly, prematurely wise.
- Principal; primary.
- They were arch enemies.
- the most arch act of piteous massacrec. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
Noun (2)
arch (plural arches)
- A chief.
- My worthy arch and patron comes to-night.c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
- Synonym of god (“person who owns and runs a multi-user dungeon”).
- Synonyms:
- god
Noun (3)
arch (plural arches)
- An architecture; a computer architecture or instruction set architecture.
- In the Linux kernel, arch-specific code lives in the arch directory of the source tree.
Adjective (2) capitalized: ARCH
ARCH (not comparable)
- Initialism of autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity
Proper noun capitalized: Arch
Arch
- A diminutive of the male given names Archibald and Archie.
arch meaning in Hindi, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada
arch in Hindi
- architectural element
- चाप cāp
arch in Bengali
- আর্চ
arch in Malayalam
- architectural element
- കമാനം kamānaṁ
- form into arch
- വളയുക vaḷayuka, വളയ്ക്കുക vaḷaykkuka
arch in Kannada
- ಆರ್ಚ್, ಕಮಾನು
More languagesFewer languages
- arch in Punjabi
- ਆਰਚ
- arch in Gujarati
- કમાન
- arch in Odia
- ଆର୍ଚ୍
- arch in Nepali
- आर्च
- arch in Arabic
- قَوْس qaws
- arch in Malay
- gerbang
- arch in Persian
- قوس qows, کمان kamân, طاق tâq
- arch in Thai
- ช่องโค้ง chɔ̂ɔng-kóong
- arch in Vietnamese
- vòm
- arch in Myanmar
- မုခ်ခုံး muhkhkum:
Examples of arch in a sentence
- Green, with an arch laugh, “you are acquainted with Monsieur Margot, then?”1828, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter XVI, in Pelham; or, The Adventures of a Gentleman. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC...
- Blanche’s grey eyes gazed at Foker with such an arch twinkle that both of them burst out laughing […]1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 46, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I...
- Coppola underscores the women’s attempts to gussy up with snippets of arch dialogue.2017 June 30, Ruth La Ferla, “In ‘The Beguiled,’ Pretty Confections Whipped Up to Seduce”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
- Challenger the super scientist, Challenger the arch-pioneer, Challenger the first man of all men whom Mother Earth had been compelled to recognize.1928 February 25 – March 3, Arthur Conan Doyle, “When the World Screamed”, in The Professor Challenger Stories […], London: John Murray...
Synonyms of arch
Forms of arch
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | arches |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | arches |
| present participle | arching |
| past participle | arched |
| past | arched |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | archer |
| superlative | archest |
Origin of arch
From Middle English arch, arche, from Old French arche (“an arch”), a feminine form of arc, from Latin arcus (“a bow, arc, arch”). Doublet of arc and arco. Displaced native Old English bīeġels and Old English hwealf.
From the prefix arch-. "Principal" is the original sense; "mischievous" is via onetime frequent collocation with rogue, knave, etc.
Clipping of architecture.
Words formed from arch
- abdominothoracic arch
- antitwilight arch
- aortic arch
- aortic arch syndrome
- arch bridge
- arch dell
- arch doxy
- arched
- arch enemy
- Arches
- archful
- Archgrounds
- arch harp
- archivolt
- archless
- archlet
- archlike
- archlute
- archmold
- archmould
- arch of the aorta
- archtop
- archway
- archwire
- archwise
- archwork
- balloon arch
- bell arch
- branchial arch
- camber arch
- counterarch
- cycloidal arch
- Dean of the Arches
- dental arch
- enarch
- equilateral arch
- fallen arch
- first arch syndrome
- flying arch
- geostatic arch
- gill arch
- Golden Arches
- Gothic arch
- haemal arch
- hemiarch
- horseshoe arch
- hyoid arch
- hyoidean arch
- interarch
- jack arch
- keel arch
- keyhole arch
- knife arch
- lancet arch
- Marble Arch
- Maya arch
- Mayan arch
- midarch
- Moorish arch
- neural arch
Phrases with arch
- sea arch
- skew arch
- arch dells
- arch harps
- arch rival
- arch rogue
- Royal Arch
- smoke arch
- Thorp Arch
- Tudor arch
- wheel arch
- arch doxies
28 more phrasesFewer phrases
- arch rivals
- arch rogues
- pelvic arch
- safety arch
- scheme arch
- Syrian arch
- tented arch
- arch bridges
- arch enemies
- Arch grounds
- arch rivalry
- oblique arch
- Persian arch
- stilted arch
- pectoral arch
- straight arch
- arch rivalries
- nocturnal arch
- relieving arch
- triumphal arch
- vertebral arch
- zygomatic arch
- pharyngeal arch
- proscenium arch
- stereostatic arch
- palatoglossal arch
- first arch syndromes
- palatopharyngeal arch
Words that rhyme with arch
Questions about arch
- What does arch mean?
- Arch means an inverted U shape.
- What is arch in Hindi?
- Arch in Hindi is चाप (cāp). See Arch meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use arch in a sentence?
- Green, with an arch laugh, “you are acquainted with Monsieur Margot, then?”
- What part of speech is arch?
- Arch can be a noun, a verb, an adjective or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce arch?
- Arch is pronounced /ɑɹt͡ʃ/ (US).
- What is the plural of arch?
- The plural of arch is arches.
Words near arch in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: arch (page history and authors); ARCH (page history and authors); Arch (page history and authors); arch (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); arch (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); arch (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); arch (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); arch (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); arch (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-arch.ogg.
Cite this entry: “arch.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/arch. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.