cache

noun \ ˈkash \

|Updated on: 21 Jun 2018

Examples: cache in a Sentence

Editor's Note: cash and cache

Definition of cache

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

See cache defined for English-language learners

See cache defined for kids

Examples of cache in a Sentence

a weapons cache used by terrorists
Police found a cache of stolen cars in the woods.
Her new laptop has one megabyte of cache.

Recent Examples of cache from the Web

Over the years, the Ottenbergs gave and loaned works to the PMA and many other art institutions, and prior to the Freeman’s auctions, the four Ottenberg children gave a cache of 300 works on paper spanning Carles’ entire career to Woodmere.

— stephan salisbury, Philly.com, "Dr. Perry Ottenberg's great Philly art collection heads to auction this weekend," 31 May 2018
The 76-year-old owner of a Grandview business that was blown to pieces by a cache of homemade fireworks was sentenced Wednesday to probation.

— tony rizzo, kansascity, "Owner sentenced for homemade fireworks explosion that destroyed Grandview business," 30 May 2018
Footage from two officers' body cameras released May 2 showed police blasting through the door of the Mandalay Bay hotel suite where Paddock is seen dead amid a cache of assault-style weapons.

— Bloomberg.com, "URGENT: Hairstylist: Client Named Paddock Said Venue Easy to Attack," 23 May 2018
The palpable threat of a school shooting has hung over 13 Reasons Why since the season 1 finale, when it was revealed Tyler Down (Devin Druid) was hiding a massive cache of assault rifles, handguns, and ammunition in his bedroom.

— refinery29.com, "The Cutest Instagram Photos Of The 13 Reasons Why Cast," 22 May 2018
Since then, other companies, like Progress Residential, Main Street Renewal, and Tricon American Homes, have formed, and the industry as a whole has amassed a cache of about 200,000 single-family homes and turned them into rental properties.

— jeff andrews, Curbed, "Wall Street’s new housing frontier: Single-family rental homes," 18 May 2018
The meat has juice and punch, a touch of char and crust, and a hidden cache of fish sauce.

— ligaya mishan, New York Times, "At Em, the Noodle Soup Anchors a Menu (and a Marriage)," 17 May 2018
But that doesn't mean the materials revealed a trove of new information, though both Fitzpatrick and Lewis caution that such a large cache of documents will take time to properly analyze.

— oren liebermann, CNN, "What did Netanyahu reveal about Iran's nuclear program? Nothing new, experts say," 1 May 2018
The operation to pilfer vast caches of data, much of which was then published by WikiLeaks, was believed to have been orchestrated by the highest levels of the Russian government.

— cyrus farivar, Ars Technica, "WikiLeaks, Russia, Trump Jr. named in new DNC hacking lawsuit," 20 Apr. 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.

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.

Origin and Etymology of cache

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

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1797

in the meaning defined at sense 1a

See Words from the same year

cache Synonyms

Synonyms

hoard, stash, stockpile, store;

inventory, pool, reserve, reservoir, stock;

provisions, resources;

accumulation, assemblage, collection, gathering, harvest;

repertory;

cache

verb

Definition of cache

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

Examples of cache in a Sentence

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 of cache from the Web

The snafu rendered the files, which were cached by Google, to be publicly exposed and viewed by anyone without a password.

— sam wood, Philly.com, "After mom's gyno records found online, South Jersey docs to pay $418 million for data breach," 4 Apr. 2018
Responding officers found a small container with a pink eraser and geo-caching sign-in sheet inside the base.

— andy attina / cleveland.com, cleveland.com, "Woman takes back her vehicle from repo driver: Highland Heights Police Blotter," 4 Apr. 2018
None of the new Coffee Lake cheap chips support Intel's nifty Optane Memory technology, which caches a hard drive with a much faster Optane Memory module.

— gordon mah ung, PCWorld, "Budget gamers: You can get some Intel Coffee Lake chips for as little as $42," 4 Apr. 2018
Your California Privacy Rights The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with prior written permission of Condé Nast.

— Condé Nast Traveler, "How to Cruise Now," 1 Apr. 2018
But over that time, how many developers abided by Facebook’s rules? How many followed Kogan’s route, caching the data and making their own private databases?

— robinson meyer, The Atlantic, "The Cambridge Analytica Scandal, in 3 Paragraphs," 20 Mar. 2018
The data cannot be easily removed, because they are cached on the Internet.

— trisha thadani, San Francisco Chronicle, "Strava’s map revealing intelligence data causes stir," 5 Feb. 2018
Each individual bird will transport up to 7,000 acorns a year and cache them.

— debbie arrington, sacbee, "Picky songbirds demand native oaks," 19 Jan. 2018
The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast Digital.

— teen vogue staff, Teen Vogue, "Watch LIVE from the first-ever Teen Vogue Summit.," 6 Jan. 2018

Origin and Etymology of cache

see ¹cache

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1805

in the meaning defined above

See Words from the same year

cache Synonyms

CACHE Defined for English Language Learners

cache

noun

Definition of cache for English Language Learners

: a group of things that have been hidden in a secret place because they are illegal or have been stolen
: a part of a computer's memory where information is kept so that the computer can find it very quickly