cache

1 of 2

noun

ˈkash

Synonyms of cache next

: a hiding place especially for concealing and preserving provisions or implements

: a secure place of storage

discovered a cache of weapons

: something hidden or stored in a cache

The cache consisted of documents and private letters.

: a computer memory with very short access time used for storage of frequently or recently used instructions or data

called also cache memory

cache

2 of 2

verb

cached; caching

transitive verb

: to place (something) in a cache: such as

: to place or store (something) in a hidden or secure place for safety or concealment

cache camp supplies by a lake

coins cached in a teapot

computers : to place (instructions or data) in cache memory for temporary storage

caching websites to speed up future retrieval

Did you know?

Cash and Cache

Cache and cash are homophones (words that are pronounced alike but have different meanings, origins, or spelling) whose likeness in sound may lead to perplexity.

Cache primarily refers to a thing that is hidden or stored somewhere, or to the place where it is hidden. It has recently taken on another common meaning, “short-term computer memory where information is stored for easy retrieval.” Cash, on the other hand, is most often used in the sense “ready money.”

If you find yourself confused by these words, remember that you can store cash in a cache, but you can't do the reverse. Be mindful, too, that if you run out of cash you won't be able to buy something, but if you're short on cache, your computer won’t work.

Examples of cache in a Sentence

Noun a weapons cache used by terrorists Police found a cache of stolen cars in the woods. Her new laptop has one megabyte of cache. Verb an eccentric who cached money in odd places, such as under the boards of the floor cached the fugitives in their cellar until they could make their way to Canada

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

For those unfamiliar, 3D V-Cache allows AMD to stack additional cache (high-speed, short-term memory) directly onto its CPU. —

Monica Chin, The Verge, 21 Sep. 2023 Everett bought a cache of cheap guitars to trash while recording, whether bashing them with microphones, tearing up the strings, or mutilating them into new instruments entirely. —

Eric Torres, Pitchfork, 14 Sep. 2023 Some wolves will even steal other pack-mates food caches. —

Elizabeth Gamillo, Discover Magazine, 16 Sep. 2023 Take a look at Buy Side’s guide for choosing the best high-yield savings account for your cash cache. —

Martha C. White, wsj.com, 11 Sep. 2023 Geocaching is like a scavenger hunt that takes place all over the world with participants hiding caches, usually small containers with messages or other rewards, in all kinds of places. —

Skye Sherman, Travel + Leisure, 28 Aug. 2023 Homer says one cleaner found a cache of acorns and rat poison under some cushions. —

Jura Koncius, Washington Post, 1 Aug. 2023 Meanwhile, Steven uses his tracking skills and out-strategizes Jeff to secure a critical cache and Gary forages a huge protein score. —

Josie Howell | Jhowell@al.com, al, 9 July 2023 The cache also includes 2,500 IP addresses, 500 cryptocurrency wallets, and thousands of domains and email addresses. —

Matt Burgess, WIRED, 30 Aug. 2023

Verb

No, wolves do not cache their kills like mountain lions do. —

Katie Hill, Outdoor Life, 23 Aug. 2023 Apart from that, technology solutions such as server-side rendering, caching, lightweight frameworks and pruning plugins will go a long way. —

Expert Panel®, Forbes, 7 Mar. 2023 Jays are said to cache a kabillion nuts, give or take, every winter, and unerringly remember the location of each one. —

Murr Brewster, The Christian Science Monitor, 28 Apr. 2023 In both incidents, officials caught Rae collecting and caching elk antlers inside Bridger-Teton National Forest boundaries during a closed season. —

Dac Collins, Outdoor Life, 24 Apr. 2023 Leverage Caching One of the most effective ways to speed up a website is by leveraging caching. —

Expert Panel®, Forbes, 7 Mar. 2023 To continue their research into robot deception, Arkin and his team were inspired by the food caching behaviors of squirrels. —

IEEE Spectrum, 3 Dec. 2012 The carbon-caching capacity of peatlands is enormous. —

Michelle Nijhuis, The New York Review of Books, 30 Mar. 2023 But TorrentFreak documented the DMCA Twitter saga in great detail, gathering archived and cached tweets to piece together what happened. —

Ashley Belanger, Ars Technica, 7 Mar. 2023 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'cache.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Noun

borrowed from North American French, from French, "hiding place," noun derivative of cacher "to hide, conceal," going back to Old French cachier, quaichier "to put away, lock up, cover, remove from view, conceal" (also Middle French cacher "to press, crush"), going back to Vulgar Latin *coācticāre "to press, constrict," from Latin coāctāre "to compel" (frequentative of cōgere "to drive together, collect, compress, compel") + -icāre, verb formative — more at cogent

Note: The etymological sense "to compress, constrict" is not attested for the Old French verb, though it likely existed and is apparent in the prefixed form escachier "to crush and flatten, break by pressing or falling on." From the sense "compress" presumably developed the senses "lock up, cover, put away," and hence "remove from view, conceal," common from the sixteenth century. The sense "to press, crush" is marginally evident in Middle French in areas in contact with Occitan, though it penetrated widely enough to form the basis for the derivative cachet "seal" (see cachet).

Verb

verbal derivative of cache entry 1

First Known Use

Noun

1797, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Verb

1805, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler

The first known use of cache was in 1797

See more words from the same year