cache

noun

\ˈkash

Definition of cache

(Entry 1 of 2)

1a : 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

verb

cached; caching

Definition of cache (Entry 2 of 2)

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

Synonyms Cash and Cache More Example Sentences Learn More about cache

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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 fugitive slaves in their cellar until they could make their way to Canada

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun

Here's how to download your personal cache of Apple data: Navigate to the Privacy Portal and input your Apple ID. — Sam Blum, Popular Mechanics, "What Data Does Apple Have on You? Here's How to Download It and Find Out," 18 Oct. 2018 The National Archives is also producing documents from Kavanaugh’s time on Kenneth Starr’s investigation of President Bill Clinton, but has said its larger cache of files from the Bush years won’t fully be delivered until late October. — Dustin Weaver, The Seattle Times, "Sen. Collins, potential swing vote, to meet with Kavanaugh," 20 Aug. 2018 Unlike the planet’s large inner moons, like Europa and Io, this large cache of moons orbiting far out from Jupiter are thought to be made up of the same material that served as the building blocks for the planets. — Loren Grush, The Verge, "Astronomers have found a new crop of moons around Jupiter, and one of them is a weirdo," 17 July 2018 The plaintiffs received access to a large cache of internal admission data in the pretrial phase of the case. — Nick Anderson, Washington Post, "Harvard defends integrity of its admissions in response to allegation of bias against Asian Americans," 15 June 2018 This is a truly modern fine dining experience—and the perfect place to show off your culinary cache. — Krista Simmons, Condé Nast Traveler, "35 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles," 27 Feb. 2018 Law enforcement agencies investigating a series of blasts targeting ATMs in Philadelphia have arrested a 29-year-old Delaware County man and charged him with possessing a cache of M-type explosives, officials said Thursday. — Joseph A. Gambardello, Philly.com, "Delco man arrested with cache of explosives like those used in Philly ATM blasts," 5 July 2018 One of the major factors influencing current and future rules changes is the vast cache of injury data the NFL is collecting. — Conor Orr, SI.com, "The Kickoff Is Staying in the NFL, But for How Much Longer?," 3 May 2018 That means that technically, there is a million-dollar art cache tucked away in Cincinnati’s places of worship. — Carol Motsinger, Cincinnati.com, "We knew we our stained glass windows were beautiful. We didn't know they were Tiffany.," 29 Mar. 2018

Recent Examples on the Web: Verb

The mission will have two focuses: to give us a better perspective on whether Mars has ever hosted life and to cache rocks for a sample return mission. — John Timmer, Ars Technica, "NASA picks a landing spot on Mars for its 2020 rover," 19 Nov. 2018 Typically, massive files can take a while to write to disk due to caching issues, but the 860 Evo was a champ under pressure. — Ian Paul, PCWorld, "How low can our favorite SSD for most people, Samsung's 860 Evo, go? 256GB for $58," 17 Sep. 2018 The forthcoming Mars 2020 rover mission is focused on searching for potentially habitable environments, including caching samples for a possible sample return to Earth. — Elizabeth Howell, Space.com, "New NASA Chief Sees Moon Missions Building a 'Railroad' to Mars," 9 May 2018 But the modifications to cache can be detected, and this can be used to infer the contents of kernel memory. — Peter Bright, Ars Technica, "Intel’s SGX blown wide open by, you guessed it, a speculative execution attack," 14 Aug. 2018 The work had last sold for $31 million in 1997, to a Saudi collector who apparently cached the work in his London apartment. — Kevin Conley, Town & Country, "Pablo Picasso Sets a Record for Most Expensive Art Work in the World at Christie's," 12 May 2015 All photos stored in the desktop folder are also automatically cached as thumbnails. — Dan Goodin, Ars Technica, "Reminder: macOS still leaks secrets stored on encrypted drives," 18 June 2018 This is valuable to a range of database-like and caching workloads. — Peter Bright, Ars Technica, "Intel at last announces Optane memory: DDR4 that never forgets," 31 May 2018 Google Chrome on Android is getting a new feature that will automatically download relevant news articles when connected to Wi-Fi, which should help cache articles for offline reading, the company announced yesterday. — Shannon Liao, The Verge, "Google Chrome on Android can now cache news articles on Wi-Fi for offline reading," 22 June 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'cache.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

History and Etymology for cache

Noun

French, from cacher to press, hide, from Vulgar Latin *coacticare to press together, from Latin coactare to compel, frequentative of cogere to compel — more at cogent

Verb

see cache entry 1

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