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
Clara Harter, Los Angeles Times, 7 Mar. 2026
Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on March 7, according to the Tribune’s archives.
—Kori Rumore, Chicago Tribune, 7 Mar. 2026
Daniel Ruetenik, CBS News, 27 Feb. 2026
That's a huge improvement over existing magnetic tape and hard drives used for archiving data, which are good for only up to a decade at the most.
—New Atlas, 21 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for archive
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Noun
The couple are interested in partnering with a philanthropic organization to help digitize the newspaper’s archives, which stretch back to 1928 — when the eight-page weekly tabloid, known then as the Palisadian, sold for just five cents a pop.
—Clara Harter, Los Angeles Times, 7 Mar. 2026
Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on March 7, according to the Tribune’s archives.
—Kori Rumore, Chicago Tribune, 7 Mar. 2026
Verb
It was also archived by Jmail, a web interface that was created to archive Epstein content.
—Daniel Ruetenik, CBS News, 27 Feb. 2026
That's a huge improvement over existing magnetic tape and hard drives used for archiving data, which are good for only up to a decade at the most.
—New Atlas, 21 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for archive
Cite this Entry
“Archive.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/archive. Accessed 14 Mar. 2026.
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: a place in which public records or historical documents are preserved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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