cache

1 of 2

noun

ˈkash 

1

a

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

b

: a secure place of storage

discovered a cache of weapons

2

: something hidden or stored in a cache

The cache consisted of documents and private letters.

3

: 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

a

: 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

b

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.

Synonyms

Noun

• deposit
• hoard
• reserve
• store

Verb

• hoard
• lay away
• lay by
• lay in
• lay up
• put by
• salt away
• squirrel (away)
• stash
• stockpile
• store
• stow
• treasure

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

Weighing a hefty 15 pounds, the cache was found by two hikers who handed the treasure over to the museum in February. —Andrea Margolis, FOXNews.com, 8 May 2025

The image below, from a Seagate presentation shows a high-capacity enterprise HDD with an SSD cache both functioning over a PCIe bus to the DPU and a special NIC supporting remote direct memory access using NVMe-oF and AIStorage object storage with optional GPUDirect capability for the HDD data. —Thomas Coughlin, Forbes.com, 6 May 2025

Verb

That means investing in platforms that unify structured and unstructured data, support edge-to-cloud data mobility, and offer intelligent data tiering and caching to maximize throughput. —Sven Oehme, Forbes.com, 15 May 2025

The Mars Sample Return Mission, which is currently underway, with the Perseverance rover collecting and caching soil and rock samples for return by a later robot craft, will be canceled. —Jeffrey Kluger, Time, 6 May 2025

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

Rhymes for cache

• ash
• bash
• brash
• cash
• clash
• crash
• dash
• flash
• gash
• hash
• lash
• mash

Kids Definition

cache

1 of 2 noun

ˈkash 

1

: a place for hiding, storing, or preserving treasure or supplies

2

: something hidden or stored in a cache

3

: a computer memory with very short access time

cache

2 of 2 verb

cached; caching

: to hide or store in a cache