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

Of note among the displays were new DF-61 and DF-31BJ intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), evidence of China’s development of mobile ICBMs as part of its nuclear deterrent arsenal. —Chad De Guzman, Time, 3 Sep. 2025

One spectator brought 350 water balloons packed in a cooler, but exhausted his arsenal long before the final race was run. —M.l. Elrick, Freep.com, 2 Sep. 2025

The first lady, meanwhile, is on a safari in Africa and hard to pin down, and a moment where POTUS’ phone call with her drops out as 18 minutes turn into four and even fewer is one of an arsenal of devastating hammers Bigelow drops on you. —Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire, 2 Sep. 2025

China has more than doubled its nuclear arsenal in the past five years. —Rivka Galchen, New Yorker, 2 Sep. 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