arsenal

noun

ar·​se·​nal ˈärs-nəl 

ˈär-sə-

1

a

: an establishment for the manufacture or storage of arms and military equipment

The city is home to a federal arsenal.

b

: a collection of weapons

2

: store, repertoire

the team's arsenal of veteran players

Synonyms

• armory
• warehouse

Examples of arsenal in a Sentence

The city is home to a federal arsenal.

Doctors have a broad arsenal of medicines to choose from.

the team's arsenal of veteran players

Recent Examples on the Web

In short, Might Gaine is an anime that asks the age-old question of what if Batman were a Japanese teenager with an arsenal of sentient trains that transformed into robots. —Ollie Barder, Forbes.com, 17 Sep. 2025

Martinez has a five-pitch arsenal, mainly relying on a sweeper and four-seam fastball while also mixing in a cutter, changeup and sinker. —Noah Camras, MSNBC Newsweek, 15 Sep. 2025

The Hornets are not a dull outfit with their arsenal of speed on offense and defense and Marion’s dynamic play-calling. —Joe Davidson, Sacbee.com, 14 Sep. 2025

Building a Lodge arsenal in your kitchen all at once can cost a pretty penny, but thankfully Amazon just marked down a number of cast-iron pieces to stock up on best-sellers and make your everyday cooking a breeze. —Alicia Geigel, Southern Living, 10 Sep. 2025

Word History

Etymology

earlier, "dockyard for the construction and repair of naval vessels," borrowed from Middle French archenal, arsenail, arsenal (in reference to the naval dockyard of Venice), borrowed (with conformation of the final to -al -al entry 2) from Upper Italian (Venice) arzanà, presumably alteration (by metanalysis, with the initial taken as the preposition d', di "from") of darsenà (attested in Genoese, earlier in Medieval Latin as darsena, darsana), borrowed from Arabic dār al-ṣināʽa "place of manufacture," from dār "house" + al "the" (assimilated to aṣ) + ṣināʽa "manufacture" (derivative of ṣanaʽa "to make")

Note: Forms with final -ale (as arsenale, arzanale, arzenale) are attested in Italian in the sixteenth century and may be the immediate source of the English word. The French forms with -al may reflect these, though attested about a century earlier. As arzanà the Venetian word is attested in the text of Dante's Inferno ("nell'arzanà de' Viniziani," XXI, 7).

First Known Use

1555, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Kids Definition

arsenal

noun

ar·​se·​nal ˈärs-nəl 

-ᵊn-əl

1

: a place for the manufacture or storage of arms

2

: a collection of weapons