The Meaning of Archive: What It Is and How To Use It

The word archive can be used as a noun, adjective, or verb. This article will teach you the various meanings of archive.

Your writing, at its best

Compose bold, clear, mistake-free, writing with Grammarly's AI-powered writing assistant

Do you know how to use the word archive as different parts of speech? This article will teach you how!

What Does the Word Archive Mean?

According to Collins English Dictionary, the word archive can be a noun, adjective, or verb. 

As a noun, an archive is a collection of historical documents. As an adjective, the word archive describes material and documents from an archive. As a verb, archive means to store documents or materials in an archive. 

The pronunciation of archive is ˈɑːkaɪv.

What Is the Origin of Archive?

According to Dictionary, the word archive has been used since the early 17th century Middle English. This word comes from the Late Latin archīvum and the Latin archīva. These have their roots in the Greek arkheion, arkhein, and arkheia, which refers to a repository where official records were stored. 

The Greek term comes from the Greek arkhē meaning government. It originates from the Ancient Greek ἀρχεῖον meaning town hall. Knowing where different words originate can make it easier to spell them and understand their meaning. 

Try learning the roots of other words to discern what they mean!

How Can Archive Be Used in a Sentence?

The word archive can be used in many sentences as a noun, an adjective, and a verb. When looking at the examples below, see if you can identify which part of speech the word archive is. Then, try seeing if you can use the word archive as all three of its possible parts of speech. 

Example #1: Different Types of Archives

We strolled through the collection of records in the French archives, in awe of the old documents. Then, we explored the late 19th century film archive from North America, which was in the back of the long-term storage area.

Example #2: A Digital Archive

She searched through her digital archive folder in Gmail to find the e-mails she needed to prove her whereabouts. Such records would be crucial for proving her innocence, but it wasn’t easy to find her archived message outside of her inbox.

Example #3: Archiving Files on a Computer 

The computer programmer archived backup copies of files in the hard drive made with magnetic tape. The efficient storage system made cataloging each piece of software easy.

Example #4: The Municipal Archives

We searched through the municipal archives to find any old land deeds that would help our labor movement and found many materials of historical interest. We were grateful that the archive was still in active use.

Example #5: A Person Who Archives

The Princeton University archivist loved records management and spent all day converting historical materials for digital preservation. She put every United States document through the scanner one by one to preserve the important data.

Example #6: Social Media Archives

Former fans dug up his racist comments from the archives on Facebook and Twitter. Though he had deleted them, someone had saved his blog posts and e-mail messages on a hard drive.

What Are Translations of Archive?

Archives exist all over the world! If you plan to communicate about archives with a person who does not speak English, you can reference this list of archive translations from Nice Translator to assist you. Learning how to communicate in other languages can help you connect with people all over the world.

  • Urdu: محفوظ شدہ دستاویزات
  • Norwegian: arkivet
  • Portuguese (Brazil): arquivo
  • Lithuanian: Archyvas
  • Latvian: arhīvs
  • Thai: คลังเก็บเอกสารสำคัญ
  • Arabic: أرشيف
  • Bulgarian: Архив
  • Turkish: Arşiv
  • Romanian: Arhiva
  • Vietnamese: lưu trữ
  • German: Archiv
  • Amharic: መዝገብ ቤት
  • Italian: archivio
  • Kannada: ಆರ್ಕೈವ್
  • Malayalam: ശേഖരിക്കുക
  • Ukrainian: архів
  • Malay: arkib
  • Japanese: 記録
  • Chinese (Taiwan): 檔案
  • Telugu: ఆర్కైవ్
  • Russian: архив
  • Welsh: harchifau
  • Hungarian: archívum
  • Hebrew: ארכיון
  • Estonian: arhiiv
  • Icelandic: skjalasafn
  • Korean: 보관소
  • Bengali: আর্কাইভ
  • Slovak: archív
  • Portuguese (Portugal): arquivo
  • Chinese (PRC): 档案
  • Catalan: Arxiu
  • Polish: archiwum
  • Dutch: archief
  • Gujarati: આર્કાઇવ
  • Greek: αρχειοθέτηση
  • Marathi: संग्रहण
  • Finnish: arkisto
  • Swahili: Archive
  • Swedish: arkiv
  • Hindi: पुरालेख
  • Slovenian: Arhiv
  • Croatian: arhiv
  • French: archiver
  • Tamil: காப்பகமாக
  • Czech: archiv
  • Indonesian: Arsip
  • Serbian: архива
  • Spanish: archivo
  • Basque: artxibo
  • Danish: Arkiv

What Are Synonyms of the Word Archive?

Power Thesaurus lists many different words that you can use in place of the word archive. The word archive is usually used to reference historical documents. If you are looking for a more specific word, you can try to use one of the below synonyms for archive. 

  • account
  • accounts
  • administrative office
  • annal
  • annals
  • archival
  • archived
  • bank
  • cache
  • calendar
  • cartulary
  • catalog
  • chancery
  • chronicle
  • chronicles
  • data
  • database
  • depository
  • diary
  • directories
  • directory
  • document
  • documentation
  • documents
  • dossier
  • extracts
  • file
  • file away
  • files
  • filing
  • history
  • index
  • inventory
  • ledger
  • library
  • list
  • listing
  • log
  • muniments
  • museum
  • note
  • papers
  • prospectus
  • record
  • record office
  • records
  • register
  • registry
  • report
  • repository
  • roll
  • scrolls
  • silo
  • storage
  • store
  • storehouse
  • storeroom
  • warehouse

What Are Antonyms of the Word Archive?

If you need to use a word that means the opposite of archive, you can take a look at the below antonyms of the word archive from Power Thesaurus. Learning antonyms of words like archive can help you expand your vocabulary. 

  • baffle
  • beat
  • befog
  • bemuse
  • bewilder
  • blur
  • cloud
  • clutter
  • complicate
  • confound
  • confuse
  • derange
  • disarrange
  • disarray
  • discombobulate
  • discompose
  • disconcert
  • dishevel
  • disorder
  • disorganize
  • disrupt
  • distract
  • disturb
  • embroil
  • entangle
  • floor
  • fog
  • foul-up
  • garble
  • jumble
  • make complex
  • make difficult
  • make more difficult
  • make unclear
  • mess
  • mess up
  • mix
  • mix up
  • muddle
  • mystify
  • nonplus
  • obfuscate
  • obscure
  • perplex
  • puzzle
  • scramble
  • shuffle
  • stump
  • tangle
  • throw
  • tumble
  • unsettle
  • upset

Conclusion

The word archive can be a noun, an adjective, or a verb. All of the meanings of archive relate to the storage and retrieval of historical documents or other types of records. Have you ever visited an archive or archived something yourself?

Sources:

  1. Archive synonyms – 395 Words and Phrases for Archive | Power Thesaurus 
  2. Archive antonyms – 25 Opposites of Archive | Power Thesaurus 
  3. Archive Definition & Meaning | Dictionary.com 
  4. Archive definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionary 
  5. Archive | Nice Translator