libraries

Noun

library (plural libraries)

1. An institution which holds books and/or other forms of media for use by the public or qualified people often lending them out, as well as providing various other services for its users.
   • She went to exchange her books at her local library.

   Synonyms:

   bookhouse, bibliotheca, bibliotheque

2. (broadly) Any institution that lends out its goods for use by the public or a community.
   • You can check out a bandsaw from the tool library.
3. A collection of books or other forms of stored information.
   • A small library of books has been written on the subject.1896, Alfred Newton, A Dictionary of Birds, page 71
4. A collection of information or reference materials not in book form.
   • She has the most impressive record library I've ever seen.
5. A room dedicated to storing books.
6. A collection of software routines that provide functionality to be incorporated into or used by a computer program.
   • A static library is much like any other library in that it contains a bunch of code for your application to use.2014, John Paul Mueller, Jeff Cogswell, C++ All-in-One For Dummies, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 307

   Synonyms:

   library file

See all 8 meanings of library