Definition of LIBRARY

library

Meanings

Plural: libraries

Noun

  • a room where books are kept
    • "they had brandy in the library"
  • a collection of literary documents or records kept for reference or borrowing
  • a depository built to contain books and other materials for reading and study
  • (computing) a collection of standard programs and subroutines that are stored and available for immediate use
  • a building that houses a collection of books and other materials
  • 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.
  • Any institution that lends out its goods for use by the public or a community.
  • A collection of books or other forms of stored information.
  • An equivalent collection of analogous information in a non-printed form, e.g. record library.
  • A room dedicated to storing books.
  • A collection of software routines that provide functionality to be incorporated into or used by a computer program.
  • A collection of DNA material from a single organism or relative to a single disease.
  • The deck or draw pile.

Origin / 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).
Romance cognates often mean “bookshop” instead: French librairie, Italian libreria, Spanish librería, Romanian librărie and Portuguese livraria. This is a relatively recent innovation (16th century in French), which ended up displacing the earlier sense.

Synonyms

bibliotheca, bibliotheke, bookhouse, depository library, program library, subroutine library

Scrabble Score: 12

library is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL word
library is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
library is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 13

library is a valid Words With Friends word