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
Liz Crawford, CBS News, 21 Feb. 2026
Attending a fashion show should always (if done well) feel like stepping into a cultural archive.
—Daisy Maldonado, InStyle, 21 Feb. 2026
Lynnette Nicholas, Parents, 20 Feb. 2026
The process, described recently in Nature, is designed for archiving records that don’t need to be accessed often, such as certain climate measurements, historical records and other reference materials.
—Damien Pine, Scientific American, 19 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for archive
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Noun
With so much attention lately on the site, CBS News Philadelphia went deep into our archives to see how the exhibit came to be.
—Liz Crawford, CBS News, 21 Feb. 2026
Attending a fashion show should always (if done well) feel like stepping into a cultural archive.
—Daisy Maldonado, InStyle, 21 Feb. 2026
Verb
Museum, which includes a podcast studio, sound booths, and music rooms, where more than 100 guitars and historic drums are archived.
—Lynnette Nicholas, Parents, 20 Feb. 2026
The process, described recently in Nature, is designed for archiving records that don’t need to be accessed often, such as certain climate measurements, historical records and other reference materials.
—Damien Pine, Scientific American, 19 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 26 Feb. 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: a place in which public records or historical documents are preserved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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