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
archived; archiving
: 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
Martin Dale, Variety, 22 Nov. 2025
Instead, Berliner, granted access to Raphan’s personal archive, made this candid and poignant biographical portrait.
—Sheldon Pearce, New Yorker, 21 Nov. 2025
Christopher Cann, USA Today, 17 Nov. 2025
The briefing revealed that the app had archived twenty-nine e-mails on my behalf, and its decisions seemed pretty good—a quick scan suggested that all but two were indeed deletable.
—Cal Newport, New Yorker, 11 Nov. 2025
See All Example Sentences for archive
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Noun
People who don’t have sovereignty, don’t have archives and don’t have production of a knowledge system.
—Martin Dale, Variety, 22 Nov. 2025
Instead, Berliner, granted access to Raphan’s personal archive, made this candid and poignant biographical portrait.
—Sheldon Pearce, New Yorker, 21 Nov. 2025
Verb
Wong is best known for founding the Disability Visibility Project in 2014, an oral history project that collected the life stories of hundreds of disabled people nationwide, many of which have since been archived in the Library of Congress.
—Christopher Cann, USA Today, 17 Nov. 2025
The briefing revealed that the app had archived twenty-nine e-mails on my behalf, and its decisions seemed pretty good—a quick scan suggested that all but two were indeed deletable.
—Cal Newport, New Yorker, 11 Nov. 2025
See All Example Sentences for archive
Cite this Entry
“Archive.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/archive. Accessed 29 Nov. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
archive
1 of 2 noun
ar·chive
ˈär-ˌkīv 
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: a place in which public records or historical documents are preserved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
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