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 of arsenal

• 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

The Soviet Union developed a vast industrial and scientific sector and achieved spectacular technical feats, such as the first space flight and the world’s largest nuclear arsenal. —Zongyuan Zoe Liu, Foreign Affairs, 16 Dec. 2025

During World War II and throughout the Cold War, the Hanford reactors along the Columbia River near Richland, Washington produced most of the plutonium in the US arsenal of bombs and missiles, leaving behind 56 million gallons of radioactive sludge stored in 177 aging underground tanks. —New Atlas, 14 Dec. 2025

Vertical proliferation is when the nations that already have nuclear bombs—there are nine—add to their arsenals, as China is doing now. —Robin Wright, New Yorker, 12 Dec. 2025

But the one recipe that is, arguably, most beloved from the arsenal is the praline from the ancient, yet still relevant Culinary Arts Institute Cookbook. —Joey Skladany, Southern Living, 9 Dec. 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