Word.ws English Dictionary

file

UK/faɪl/

file noun: a collection of papers collated and archived together. Also the clipping of file cabinet.

file: a collection of papers collated and archived together
Image: CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

file (plural files)

  1. A collection of papers collated and archived together.
    • It is upon a file with the duke's other letters.c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
    • We'd like to know a little bit about you for our files
      We'd like to help you learn to help yourself1968 April 5, Paul Simon, “Mrs. Robinson”, in Bookends, performed by Simon & Garfunkel
    Synonyms:
    document, paper
  2. A roll or list.
    • a file of all the gentryc. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
  3. A course of thought; a thread of narration.
    • Let me resume the file of my narration.1642, Henry Wotton, A Short View of the Life and Death of George Villiers
  4. An aggregation of data on a storage device, identified by a name.
    • He had created a file for coding to design a new product.
    • I'm going to delete these unwanted files to free up some disk space.
  5. A row of modular kitchen units and a countertop, consisting of cabinets and appliances below (dishwasher) and next to (stove/cooker) a countertop.
    • Many homes now have double-file kitchens.

Verb (1)

file (third-person singular simple present files, present participle filing, simple past and past participle filed)

  1. (transitive) To commit (official papers) to some office.
    • She filed their accounts yesterday.
    • The episode’s unwillingness to fully commit to the pathos of the Bart-and-Laura subplot is all the more frustrating considering its laugh quota is more than filled by a rollicking B-story that finds Homer, he of the iron stomach and insatiable appetite, filing a lawsuit against The Frying Dutchman...2012 May 27, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “New Kid On The Block” (season 4, episode 8; originally aired 11/12/1992)”, in The Onion AV Club
    1. (intransitive, transitive) To submit a formal request to some office.
      • She filed for divorce the next day.
      • The company filed for bankruptcy when the office opened on Monday.
  2. (transitive) (of a journalist) To submit (an article) to a newspaper or similar publication.
    • I filed my copy soon after the interview.
  3. (transitive) To place in an archive in a logical place and order.
    • Troves of documents filed away in the depository.
  4. (transitive) To store a file (aggregation of data) on a storage medium such as a disc or another computer.
  5. (obsolete, transitive) To set in order; to arrange, or lay away.
    • I would have my several courses and my dishes well filed.1606, Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, “The Woman-Hater”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1679, →OCLC, Act I, scene ii

Noun (2)

file (plural files)

  1. A column of people one behind another, whether "single file" or in a grid pattern.
    • The troops marched in Indian file.
    Antonyms:
    rank
  2. A small detachment of soldiers.
  3. One of the eight vertical lines of squares on a chessboard (i.e., those identified by a letter).
    Antonyms:
    rank

Verb (2)

file (third-person singular simple present files, present participle filing, simple past and past participle filed)

  1. (intransitive) To move in a file.
    • The applicants kept filing into the room until it was full.

Noun (3)

file (plural files)

  1. A tool consisting of a strip or rod of hardened and coarse metal, used for removing sharp edges, shaping, and cutting, especially through metal; usually a hand tool.
  2. (archaic, slang) A cunning or resourceful person.
    • Will is an old file, in spite of his smooth face.1857–1859, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, The Virginians. A Tale of the Last Century, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1858–1859, →OCLC
    • The greatest character among them was that of a Pickpocket, or, in truer language, a File.1743, Henry Fielding, The Life and Death of Jonathan Wild, the Great
  3. (obsolete, slang) A pickpocket.
    • The greatest character among them was that of a pickpocket, or, in their language, a file.1743, Henry Fielding, The Life and Death of Jonathan Wild, the Great

Verb (3)

file (third-person singular simple present files, present participle filing, simple past and past participle filed)

  1. (transitive) To smooth, grind, or cut with a file.
    • I'd better file the bottoms of the table legs. Otherwise they will scratch the flooring.
    • Orion hit a rabbit once; but though sore wounded it got to the bury, and, struggling in, the arrow caught the side of the hole and was drawn out. Indeed, a nail filed sharp is not of much avail as an arrowhead; you must have it barbed, and that was a little beyond our skill.1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter II, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC

Verb (4)

file (third-person singular simple present files, present participle filing, simple past and past participle filed)

  1. (archaic) To defile.
    • I cannot thinke […] So true a bird would file ſo faire a neſt, […]1593, anonymous author, The Life and Death of Iacke Straw […], →OCLC, Act I
    • for Banquo's issue have I fil'd my mindc. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
    Synonyms:
    befoul, foil, inquinate, assoil, beclart, bedaub, bedirty, imbrue (especially with blood), bedizen, befile
  2. To corrupt.

Proper noun capitalized: File

File (plural Files)

  1. A surname.

Also used as

file is also the clipping of file cabinet.

file meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

file in Hindi

computing: aggregation of data
फ़ाइल fāil
cutting or smoothing tool
रेती retī

file in Tamil

கோப்பு, தாக்கல் செய்யுங்கள், கோப்பு செய்ய

file in Marathi

फाइल, फाईल, संचिका

file in Urdu

computing: aggregation of data
فائِل fāil
cutting or smoothing tool
ریتی retī
More languagesFewer languages
file in Bengali
ফাইল phail, রেতি reti
file in Telugu
ఆకురాయి ākurāyi
file in Malayalam
പ്രമാണം pramāṇaṁ, അരം araṁ, രാകുക rākuka
file in Kannada
ಕಡತ, ಕಡತವು, ಕಡತಕ್ಕೆ
file in Punjabi
ਫਾਈਲ, ਫਾਇਲ, ਫ਼ਾਈਲ
file in Gujarati
ફાઇલ, ફાઈલ, ફાઇલ કરવી
file in Odia
ଫାଇଲ, ଫାଇଲ୍, ଫାଇଲଟି
file in Nepali
फाइल, फाईल, फाइल गर्ने
file in Pashto
دوسيه dosya
file in Tagalog
talaksan, kikil
file in Arabic
مِلَفّ milaff, مِبْرَد mibrad
file in Malay
fail, kikir
file in Indonesian
berkas, fail
file in Thai
แฟ้ม fɛ́ɛm, ไฟล์ faai, แถว tɛ̌o, ตะไบ dtà-bai
file in Vietnamese
tập tin, giũa, tệp, tệp tin
file in Myanmar
ဖိုင် hpuing, တံစဉ်း tamcany:

Examples of file in a sentence

  • They filed for a refund under their warranty.
  • While the girls’ mothers were preparing to file missing-person reports, they received a call that their daughters were fine.2026 July 27, Nicholas Muhoro, “The Disappearance of Kayla Berg and the Condemned House Where Her Trail Ended”, in Skip Boring, archived...
  • Within a year, I filed an LLC and made it official.2026 April 22, Jillian Sanders, “The Danger of Surrendering Your Financial Independence in a Relationship”, in TIME, archived from the...

All 40 example sentences with file

Synonyms of file

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of file

Forms of file

Noun
pluralfiles
Verb
third-person singular presentfiles
present participlefiling
past participlefiled
pastfiled
Proper noun
pluralFiles

Past tense of file: filed

Plural of file: files

Origin of file

From Old French fil (“thread”), from Latin fīlum (“thread”). Doublet of filum.

From French file, from filer (“to spin out, arrange one behind another”), from Latin fīlāre, from filum (“thread”).

From Middle English file, fyle, from Old English fēl, fēol (“file”), from earlier fīil, from Proto-Germanic *finhlō, *finhilō (“file, rasp”), from Proto-Indo-European *peyḱ- (“to adorn, form”). Cognate with West Frisian file (“file”), Dutch vijl (“file”), German Feile (“file”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish fil (“file”), Icelandic þjöl (“rasp, file”).

Words formed from file

Phrases with file

98 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with file

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about file

What does file mean?
File means a collection of papers collated and archived together.
What is file in Hindi?
File in Hindi is फ़ाइल (fāil), रेती (retī). See File meaning in Hindi.
How do you use file in a sentence?
They filed for a refund under their warranty.
What part of speech is file?
File can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce file?
File is pronounced /faɪl/ (UK).
What is the plural of file?
The plural of file is files.

Words near file in the dictionary

  1. filching
  2. filchingly
  3. filchings
  4. Filchner
  5. Fildu de Jos
  6. file
  7. file 13
  8. file allocation table
  9. file allocation tables
  10. file association
  11. file associations

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: file (page history and authors); File (page history and authors); file (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); file (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); file (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); file (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); file (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); file (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); file (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-file.ogg.

Cite this entry: “file.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/file. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.