archive
Syllables: arch·ive/ˈɑːkaɪv//ˈɑɹˌkaɪv/
archive noun: a repository or other place for storing material (such as documents and records) no longer in current use, and usually having historical value.
Noun
archive (plural archives)
- A repository or other place for storing material (such as documents and records) no longer in current use, and usually having historical value.
- The chiefeſt of the firſt Precinct vvas Lubeck, vvhere the Archives of their ancient Records, and their prime Chancery is ſtill, […]1632 October 29 (Gregorian calendar), James Howell, “III. To the Right Honourable the Earl R. from Hamburgh.”, in Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ. Familiar Letters Domestic and Forren. […], 3rd edition, volume I...
- The preſident accepted the Marquis's ſvvord—he ſtay'd a fevv minutes to ſee it depoſited in the archives of his houſe—and departed.1768, Mr. Yorick [pseudonym; Laurence Sterne], “The Sword. Rennes.”, in A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy, volume II, London: […] T. Becket and P. A. De Hondt, […], →OCLC, page 56
- The material so stored, considered as a whole.
- His archive of Old High German texts is the most extensive in Britain.
- [H]e took a particular Journy to Sparta, to ſearch the Archives of that famous Commonvvealth, to underſtand throughly the model of their ancient Government, their Legiſlators, their Kings, and their Ephori, […]1683, John Dryden, “The Life of Plutarch”, in Plutarch, Plutarchs Lives. Translated from the Greek […], volume I, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, pages 22–23
- A natural deposit of material, regarded as a record of environmental changes over time.
- peat archive soil archive
- Even these 100,000-year cycles seem to be subject to still longer fluctuations, but here the historical archive begins to be less reliable. The ice archive, in any case, can no longer help us (ice clearly does not preserve prehistorical temperatures directly, but rather atmospheric isotope signals...2017, Dag Olav Hessen, “Between a Snowball and Hell”, in Kerri Pierce, transl., The Many Lives of Carbon, London: Reaktion Books, →ISBN, part II (The C in Cycle), page 178
- A collection, a repository.
- [T]heſe curious meddlers in collecting and gathering together on all ſides the errours, imperfections, defaults, and ſolæciſmes (as I may ſo ſay) not of verſes or Poemes, but of other mens lives, make of their memorie a moſt unpleaſant Archive or Regiſter, and uncivile Record, vvhich they ever...1603, Plutarch, “Of Cvriositie”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Philosophie, Commonlie Called, The Morals […], London: […] Arnold Hatfield, →OCLC, page 140
- [S]o expert was he, and a living archive in that business: however, his post seems to have vanished with himself.1862, Thomas Carlyle, “The Homaging”, in History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Called Frederick the Great, volume III, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, book XI, page 53
Verb
archive (third-person singular simple present archives, present participle archiving, simple past and past participle archived)
- To place or store (something, such as a document or record) in an archive (noun sense 1.1).
- I was planning on archiving the documents from 2001.
- The library archives some of its older books.
- Antonyms:
- de-archive, unarchive
- To transfer (less used or obsolete data, files, etc.) to a storage medium for long-term storage.
- Antonyms:
- de-archive, unarchive
archive meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Bengali and Malayalam
archive in Hindi
- material so stored, considered as a whole
- पुरालेख purālekh
- repository or other place for storing material no longer in current use, and usually having historical value
- पुरालेख purālekh
archive in Tamil
- காப்பகம், ஆவணக்கிடங்கு, ஆவணகம், ஆவணங்கள், சுவடிக்கூடம், பொது ஆவணக்களரி
archive in Bengali
- কাগজপত্র, সংগ্রহশালা
archive in Malayalam
- chronicles, records, annals
- പുരാരേഖകൾ, പുരാശേഖരം, പ്രമാണശേഖരം, രേഖകൾ, പ്രമാണങ്ങൾ, ചേർത്തുവച്ച രേഖകൾ
- record office, registry, museum
- സംഗ്രഹാലയം, റിക്കാർഡുകൾ സൂക്ഷിക്കുന്ന സ്ഥലം, ഗ്രന്ഥരക്ഷാലയം, കാഴ്ചബംഗ്ലാവ്, ചരിത്രമ്യൂസിയം, ചരിത്രസ്മാരകം
- log, file, catalogue
- പുരാരേഖകൾ ശേഖരിക്കുക, രേഖകൾ ശേഖരിച്ചുവയ്ക്കുക, രേഖകൾ സൂക്ഷിക്കുക, ലേഖ്യശ്രേണിയിൽ കൊള്ളിക്കുക, ഫയലിൽ അടുക്കുക, പുരാരേഖകൾ ക്രമമായി അടുക്കി സൂക്ഷിക്കുക
More languagesFewer languages
- archive in Kannada
- ನೆರೆಪು, ನೆರೆಕೆ, ಕಲೆತ, ಒಟ್ಟುಗೂಡಿಕೆ
- archive in Pashto
- خونديځ
- archive in Tagalog
- sinupan
- archive in Arabic
- أَرْشِيف ʔaršīf
- archive in Malay
- arkib
- archive in Indonesian
- pertinggal, arsip, mengarsipkan, mempertinggal
- archive in Persian
- آرشیو âršiv, بایگانی bâyegâni
- archive in Thai
- หอจดหมายเหตุ, หน่วยเก็บถาวร
- archive in Vietnamese
- trung tâm lưu trữ, kho tàng, tàng thư, lưu trữ thông tin
Examples of archive in a sentence
- "I don't know how one could be interested in libraries and not archives," [Thomas] Lannon told me.2017 September 20, James Somers, “Keepers of the Secrets”, in The Village Voice, New York, N.Y.: Village Voice, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from...
- D.] busy as a moth over some rotten archive, rummaged out of some seldom-explored press, in a nook at Oriel.1823, Elia [pseudonym; Charles Lamb], “Oxford in the Vacation”, in Elia. Essays which have Appeared under that Signature in The London...
- Even these 100,000-year cycles seem to be subject to still longer fluctuations, but here the historical archive begins to be less reliable.2017, Dag Olav Hessen, “Between a Snowball and Hell”, in Kerri Pierce, transl., The Many Lives of Carbon, London: Reaktion Books, →ISBN...
Synonyms of archive
Antonyms
Forms of archive
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | archives |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | archives |
| present participle | archiving |
| past participle | archived |
| past | archived |
Origin of archive
The noun is borrowed from French archive, archif, from Late Latin archīvum, archīum (“archive; room containing an archive; public record office”), from Ancient Greek ἀρχεῖον (arkheîon, “office of a magistrate; public building or office; town hall; (in the plural) archives; public records”), a noun use of the neuter form of *ἀρχεῖος (*arkheîos, “relating to an office”), from ᾰ̓ρχή (ărkhḗ, “beginning, origin; authority, sovereignty”) (from ἄρχω (árkhō, “to begin; to govern, rule”); further etymology uncertain, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *h₂er- (“to fit; to fix; to put together”), or *h₂ergʰ- (“to begin; to command; to rule”)) + -ῐος (-ĭos, suffix meaning ‘of or relating to’ forming adjectives). The verb is derived from the noun.
Words formed from archive
Phrases with archive
Questions about archive
- What does archive mean?
- Archive means a repository or other place for storing material (such as documents and records) no longer in current use, and usually having historical value.
- What is archive in Hindi?
- Archive in Hindi is पुरालेख (purālekh). See Archive meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use archive in a sentence?
- "I don't know how one could be interested in libraries and not archives," [Thomas] Lannon told me.
- What part of speech is archive?
- Archive can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce archive?
- Archive is pronounced /ˈɑːkaɪv/ (UK).
- What is the plural of archive?
- The plural of archive is archives.
Words near archive in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: archive (page history and authors); archive (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); archive (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); archive (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); archive (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). 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-uk-archive.ogg, En-us-archive.ogg.
Cite this entry: “archive.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/archive. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.