LIBRARY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does library mean? 

• LIBRARY (noun)
  The noun LIBRARY has 5 senses:

1. a room where books are kept

2. a collection of literary documents or records kept for reference or borrowing

3. a depository built to contain books and other materials for reading and study

4. (computing) a collection of standard programs and subroutines that are stored and available for immediate use

5. a building that houses a collection of books and other materials

  Familiarity information: LIBRARY used as a noun is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LIBRARY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A room where books are kept

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Context example:

they had brandy in the library

Hypernyms ("library" is a kind of...):

room (an area within a building enclosed by walls and floor and ceiling)

Holonyms ("library" is a part of...):

house (a dwelling that serves as living quarters for one or more families)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A collection of literary documents or records kept for reference or borrowing

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Hypernyms ("library" is a kind of...):

accumulation; aggregation; assemblage; collection (several things grouped together or considered as a whole)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "library"):

bibliotheca (a collection of books)

public library (a nonprofit library maintained for public use)

rental collection (a collection of books that can be rented by readers in return for a small daily fee)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A depository built to contain books and other materials for reading and study

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

depository library; library

Hypernyms ("library" is a kind of...):

deposit; depositary; depository; repository (a facility where things can be deposited for storage or safekeeping)

Meronyms (parts of "library"):

carrel; carrell; cubicle; stall (small individual study area in a library)

reading room (a room set aside for reading)

stacks (storage space in a library consisting of an extensive arrangement of bookshelves where most of the books are stored)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "library"):

athenaeum; atheneum (a place where reading materials are available)

circulating library; lending library (library that provides books for use outside the building)

Sense 4

Meaning:

(computing) a collection of standard programs and subroutines that are stored and available for immediate use

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

library; program library; subroutine library

Hypernyms ("library" is a kind of...):

accumulation; aggregation; assemblage; collection (several things grouped together or considered as a whole)

Meronyms (parts of "library"):

library program (a program in a program library)

cataloged procedure (a set of control statements that have been placed in a library and can be retrieved by name)

library routine (a debugged routine that is maintained in a program library)

Domain category:

computer programing; computer programming; programing; programming (creating a sequence of instructions to enable the computer to do something)

Sense 5

Meaning:

A building that houses a collection of books and other materials

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("library" is a kind of...):

building; edifice (a structure that has a roof and walls and stands more or less permanently in one place)

Instance hyponyms:

National Library of Medicine; U.S. National Library of Medicine; United States National Library of Medicine (the world's largest medical library)

 Context examples 

You say often you wish a library.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

An activity defined at a global library level that is an action of gathering samples that may be used for subsequent analysis.

(Defined Specimen Collection, NCI Thesaurus)

An administrative activity defined at a global library level that is an action of storing samples.

(Defined Specimen Storage, NCI Thesaurus)

An activity defined at a global library level that is an action whose immediate and primary intention is the alteration of the physical condition of the study subject or experimental unit.

(Defined Procedure, NCI Thesaurus)

In the library I found, to my great delight, a vast number of English books, whole shelves full of them, and bound volumes of magazines and newspapers.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

I was in the library—sitting in his chair—he was quite near.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

An administrative activity defined at a global library level that represents a study level administrative activity that is independent of a study subject.

(Defined Study Administrative Activity, NCI Thesaurus)

An activity defined at a global library level that identifies a characteristic or requirement intended to be applied to a potential study subject to determine whether they may not participate in a study.

(Defined Inclusion Criterion, NCI Thesaurus)

Then he stumbled upon Gayley's "Classic Myths" and Bulfinch's "Age of Fable," side by side on a library shelf.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The resulting cDNA library will be enriched for sequences expressed only in the tester cells. cDNA subtraction can also be done by PCR.

(cDNA Subtraction, NCI Thesaurus/OSP)