magazine

noun mag·a·zine \ ˈma-gə-ˌzēn , ˌma-gə-ˈ \

Updated on: 26 Apr 2018

Definition of magazine

1 : a place where goods or supplies are stored : warehouse

2 : a room in which powder and other explosives are kept in a fort or a ship

3 : the contents of a magazine: such as

a : an accumulation of munitions (see munition 2) of war

b : a stock of provisions (see ¹provision 2) or goods

4 a : a periodical containing miscellaneous pieces (such as articles, stories, poems) and often illustrated

a fashion magazine

a gardening magazine

; also : such a periodical published online

b : a similar section of a newspaper usually appearing on Sunday

c : a radio or television program presenting usually several short segments on a variety of topics

5 : a supply chamber: such as

a : a holder in or on a gun for cartridges (see cartridge 1) to be fed into the gun chamber

b : a lightproof chamber for films or plates on a camera or for film on a motion-picture projector

See magazine defined for English-language learners

See magazine defined for kids

Examples of magazine in a Sentence

She subscribes to several gardening magazines.
the village kept a magazine where people left common supplies

Recent Examples of magazine from the Web

When the murder investigation made news, that idea did too; TIME magazine was one of many news outlets that published the above photo and described Einhorn as a founder of Earth Day when covering the case.

— olivia b. waxman, Time, "Behind the Photo That Made People Think Earth Day Was Founded by a Convicted Killer," 20 Apr. 2018
The magazine reports that on Wednesday, Bexar County Assistant District Attorney Jason Goss alleged in court during a pretrial hearing that Jones confessed to more killings in 1998 while speaking with a parole officer.

— chris harris, PEOPLE.com, "Texas Nurse Allegedly Confessed to Killing Dozens of Small Children: ‘I Really Did Kill Those Babies’," 20 Apr. 2018
Atlantic writer Ta-Nehisi Coates and the magazine’s editor Jeffrey Goldberg onstage at South by Southwest in Austin, March 10.

— kevin d. williamson, WSJ, "When the Twitter Mob Came for Me," 20 Apr. 2018
The feature magazine covered interesting stories about the people and places in this beautiful piece of Wisconsin — roughly 30 miles west of Milwaukee.

— lainey seyler, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Farewell, 30West magazine," 20 Apr. 2018
Upon graduation, Greer—whose name is surely an homage to Germaine Greer—arrives for an interview at Bloomer only to learn that the magazine is shutting down.

— ruth franklin, The Atlantic, "The Female Persuasion Should Be a Literary Breakout. Will It?," 19 Apr. 2018
The magazine paired guest contributors to write about each of the 100 people on the list.

— david carrig, USA TODAY, "Time's 2018 Most Influential People list has record number of women, people under 40," 19 Apr. 2018
Hoda Kotb is having a moment -- and Time magazine is recognizing it.

— mike scott, NOLA.com, "Hoda Kotb named to Time magazine's list of 100 most influential people of 2018," 19 Apr. 2018
After Cohen threatened to sue Life & Style, the magazine held the story.

— samantha ketterer, Houston Chronicle, "Famous Houston sketch artist drawn into Stormy Daniels case," 17 Apr. 2018

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

Origin and Etymology of magazine

Middle French, from Old Occitan, from Arabic makhāzin, plural of makhzan storehouse

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1583

in the meaning defined at sense 1

See Words from the same year

magazine Synonyms

Synonyms

bulletin, gazette, journal, mag, newspaper, organ, paper, periodical, rag, review, serial, zine;

digest, little magazine;

fanzine;

pictorial, slick;

newsletter, newsmagazine, newsweekly;

MAGAZINE Defined for English Language Learners

magazine

noun

Definition of magazine for English Language Learners

: a type of thin book with a paper cover that contains stories, essays, pictures, etc., and that is usually published every week or month
: a radio or television program that discusses different topics
: a part of a gun that holds bullets

MAGAZINE Defined for Kids

magazine

noun mag·a·zine \ ˈma-gə-ˌzēn \

Definition of magazine for Students

1 : a publication issued at regular intervals (as weekly or monthly)

2 : a storehouse or warehouse for military supplies

3 : a container in a gun for holding cartridges

History for magazine

The English word magazine came from a French word with the same spelling that in turn came from an Arabic word makhāzin. Both the French and the Arabic words meant “a place where things are stored.” At first the English word had the same meaning, and it is still used in this sense. However, a later sense is now more common—that of a collection of written pieces printed at set times, the suggestion being that such collections are “storehouses of knowledge.”