archive

1 of 2

noun

ar·​chive ˈär-ˌkīv How to pronounce archive (audio)
1
: a place in which public records or historical materials (such as documents) are preserved
an archive of historical manuscripts
a film archive
also : the material preserved
often used in plural
reading through the archives
2
: a repository or collection especially of information

archive

2 of 2

verb

archived; archiving

transitive verb

: to file or collect in or as if in an archive
archive documents
archived tissue samples

Examples of archive in a Sentence

Verb The organization was devoted to cataloging and archiving printed materials on the labor movement. She archived her e-mail messages in a folder on her hard drive. a collection of archived articles
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
This story contains information from the Star-Telegram’s archives. Luke Ranker, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 2 Apr. 2024 The award-winning juice and jelly from her passion fruit was sold at area stores and gourmet food markets in Hollywood and Beverly Hills, according to Vista Historical Society archives. Linda McIntosh, San Diego Union-Tribune, 2 Apr. 2024 More from Carolyn Hax From the archive: Sister-in-law has dumped her kids. Carolyn Hax, Washington Post, 31 Mar. 2024 The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum then displayed Gibbard’s handwritten song lyrics in its archives. Nina Corcoran, Pitchfork, 29 Mar. 2024 Architectural plans and drawings for all kinds of Frey works, along with a number of clever furniture pieces, are on view as well, with much of the material coming from Frey’s own archives. John Oseid, Forbes, 28 Mar. 2024 Even in the 2023 summer blockbuster movie Barbie, Margot Robbie was styled in several looks from Chanel’s archive (including a pink tweed skirt suit modeled by Claudia Schiffer in 1995). Maia Torres, Vogue, 28 Mar. 2024 Related article ‘Extraordinary’ archive of ancient brains could help shed light on mental illness One tooth had a surprising abundance of Streptococcus mutans (S. mutans), an oral bacteria that causes cavities. Taylor Nicioli, CNN, 27 Mar. 2024 The two of them took a moment to mourn the imminent departure of Dries Van Noten from his namesake label (and to scour The RealReal for their own personal archives). Alex Jhamb Burns, Vogue, 21 Mar. 2024
Verb
This post is a collaboration between PEOPLE and StoryCorps, the largest collection of human voices ever archived. Caitlin Keating, Peoplemag, 30 Mar. 2024 The posts and other materials will be removed and archived as required by law. Jen Christensen, CNN, 27 Mar. 2024 Pro-Tek works to preserve and archive this material as well — a task that requires a level of trust which extends beyond the technical expertise of care, and into more artistic and cultural judgements. Brent Simon, Variety, 14 Mar. 2024 To artist and former hospice volunteer Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg, who is archiving 20,000 flags from the memorial with anthropology professor Sarah E. Wagner, the nation’s reckoning with loss is just beginning. Jenna Portnoy, Washington Post, 16 Mar. 2024 In a world where millions of us over-share and the content we over-share is stored, reviewed by humans and archived for months or even years, something is going to break. Zak Doffman, Forbes, 23 Feb. 2024 Loy said among local governments, the city of San Diego does a good job of archiving thousands of records requests on its system. Jeff McDonald, San Diego Union-Tribune, 4 Feb. 2024 Shortly after noon, first responders received the call in the area of the 100 block of North University Drive, near Mission Lakes Apartments, according to radio transmissions archived by the streaming site Broadcastify. Angie Dimichele, Sun Sentinel, 8 Jan. 2024 The Twitch channel has since been removed, but Talia Jane, an independent reporter who received a link to the video earlier Sunday, archived the video and shared it with CBS News. Jordan Freiman, CBS News, 25 Feb. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'archive.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Noun and Verb

French & Latin; French, from Latin archivum, from Greek archeion government house (in plural, official documents), from archē rule, government — more at arch-

First Known Use

Noun

1603, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Verb

1831, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of archive was in 1603

Dictionary Entries Near archive

Cite this Entry

“Archive.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/archive. Accessed 16 Apr. 2024.

Kids Definition

archive

1 of 2 noun
ar·​chive ˈär-ˌkīv How to pronounce archive (audio)
1
: a place in which public records or historical documents are preserved
also : the material preserved
usually used in plural
2
: a collection of information

archive

2 of 2 verb
archived; archiving
: to file or collect in or as if in an archive
was archiving documents

More from Merriam-Webster on archive

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!