library
Forms
- Plural
- libraries
Definitions
1.An institution which holds books and/or other forms of media for use by the public or qualified people often lending them out, as well as providing various other services for its users.
- When all else fails, give up and go to the library.
- She went to exchange her books at her local library.
2.Any institution that lends out its goods for use by the public or a community.
- You can check out a bandsaw from the tool library.
3.A collection of books or other forms of stored information.
- A small library of books has been written on the subject.
4.A collection of information or reference materials not in book form.
- She has the most impressive record library I've ever seen.
- At his office in Copenhagen's Amager neighborhood, Thulstrup maintains a vast materials library, arranging samples and mock-ups on tables as tactile mood boards.
Frequency
Overall
Common· #1331
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Rare
- General reading & writing
- Common
- Academic
- Uncommon
- Literature
- Rare
Etymology
From Middle English librarie, from Anglo-Norman librarie, from Old French librairie, from Latin librarium (“bookcase, chest for books”), from librarius (“concerning books”), from liber (“the inner bark of trees; paper, parchment, book”), probably derived from a Proto-Indo-European base *leub(ʰ)- (“to strip, to peel”). Displaced native Middle English bochous, bokhus (literally “book house”), from Old English bōchūs (compare bookhouse).