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 the season 2 trailer, Wednesday can be seen unloading her personal arsenal — which including a machete, a taser and brass knuckles — to make it through airport security. —Kelsie Gibson, People.com, 6 Aug. 2025

By Chris Lee best of 2025 Yesterday at 8:00 a.m. Best Albums of 2025 (So Far) Including an arsenal of snappy, hooky nods to early B-boy culture and aughts club bangers. —Britina Cheng, Vulture, 5 Aug. 2025

RedBird not only serves as Skydance’s financial partner on the Paramount deal, but also boasts a $4.7 billion arsenal that is instrumental in its pursuit of new sports and media opportunities. —Anthony Crupi, Sportico.com, 4 Aug. 2025

Still, Trump's deployment of the nuclear submarines appears to be the first time social media rhetoric has led an American president to apparently reposition parts of the United States' nuclear arsenal. —Kim Hjelmgaard, USA Today, 4 Aug. 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