MEMORY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does memory mean? 

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

1. something that is remembered

2. the cognitive processes whereby past experience is remembered

3. the power of retaining and recalling past experience

4. an electronic memory device

5. the area of cognitive psychology that studies memory processes

  Familiarity information: MEMORY used as a noun is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MEMORY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Something that is remembered

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Context example:

search as he would, the memory was lost

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

internal representation; mental representation; representation (a presentation to the mind in the form of an idea or image)

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

reminiscence (a mental impression retained and recalled from the past)

recollection (something recalled to the mind)

engram; memory trace (a postulated biochemical change (presumably in neural tissue) that represents a memory)

confabulation ((psychiatry) a plausible but imagined memory that fills in gaps in what is remembered)

screen memory (an imagined memory of a childhood experience; hides another memory of distressing significance)

Derivation:

memorize (commit to memory; learn by heart)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The cognitive processes whereby past experience is remembered

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

memory; remembering

Context example:

he enjoyed remembering his father

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

basic cognitive process (cognitive processes involved in obtaining and storing knowledge)

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

long-term memory; LTM (your general store of remembered information)

retrospection (memory for experiences that are past)

association; connection; connexion (the process of bringing ideas or events together in memory or imagination)

identification; recognition (the process of recognizing something or someone by remembering)

recall; recollection; reminiscence (the process of remembering (especially the process of recovering information by mental effort))

retrieval (the cognitive operation of accessing information in memory)

working memory (memory for intermediate results that must be held during thinking)

immediate memory; short-term memory; STM (what you can repeat immediately after perceiving it)

Derivation:

memorize (commit to memory; learn by heart)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The power of retaining and recalling past experience

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

memory; retention; retentiveness; retentivity

Context example:

he had a good memory when he was younger

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

faculty; mental faculty; module (one of the inherent cognitive or perceptual powers of the mind)

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

anamnesis; recollection; remembrance (the ability to recall past occurrences)

Derivation:

memorize (commit to memory; learn by heart)

Sense 4

Meaning:

An electronic memory device

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

computer memory; computer storage; memory; memory board; storage; store

Context example:

a memory and the CPU form the central part of a computer to which peripherals are attached

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

computer hardware; hardware ((computer science) the mechanical, magnetic, electronic, and electrical components making up a computer system)

memory device; storage device (a device that preserves information for retrieval)

Meronyms (parts of "memory"):

register ((computer science) memory device that is the part of computer memory that has a specific address and that is used to hold information of a specific kind)

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

non-volatile storage; nonvolatile storage (computer storage that is not lost when the power is turned off)

fixed storage; read-only memory; read-only storage; ROM ((computer science) memory whose contents can be accessed and read but cannot be changed)

real storage (the main memory in a virtual memory system)

scratchpad ((computer science) a high-speed internal memory used for temporary storage of preliminary information)

virtual memory; virtual storage ((computer science) memory created by using the hard disk to simulate additional random-access memory; the addressable storage space available to the user of a computer system in which virtual addresses are mapped into real addresses)

volatile storage (computer storage that is erased when the power is turned off)

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

computer; computing device; computing machine; data processor; electronic computer; information processing system (a machine for performing calculations automatically)

Sense 5

Meaning:

The area of cognitive psychology that studies memory processes

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Context example:

he taught a graduate course on learning and memory

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

cognitive psychology (an approach to psychology that emphasizes internal mental processes)

 Context examples 

The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean to wear it on my watch chain in memory of the occasion.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Huxtable’s Sidelights on Horace_ may possibly recall my name to your memories.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It is like a picture in your memory.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

The rest was a dream, no more than the memory of a dream.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

You, my dearest, will I hope read it, for then it will be in your voice in my memory for ever—come what may!

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

‘You have a good memory?’ said he.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

To help my memory, I formed all I learned into the English alphabet, and writ the words down, with the translations.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

My mother had lived there for years, it was her home and a very special place with so many happy memories.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

What happened thereupon resided forever after in her memory as a dream.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

It was such an uncomfortable hand, that, when I went to my room, it was still cold and wet upon my memory.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)