Archival

//ɑːˈkaɪv(ə)l// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The practice of storing items in an archive; archiving; (countable) an instance of this. uncountable

    "Our nightly computer backups include the archival of old e-mail messages."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Of or pertaining to an archive or archiving. not-comparable

    "In archival photographs, these lost structures appear almost futuristic (even today) in the way they carried trains across deep ravines on slender, balanced combinations of wrought and cast iron."

  2. 2
    Of a material: having a quality suited to the conservational needs of archiving. not-comparable

    "archival boxes    archival paper"

Adjective
  1. 1
    of or relating to or contained in or serving as an archive wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
archivationarchivizationdocumentarynecrologicnecrologicalobituary

Example

More examples

"In an archival interview, he was careful not to overrate his success or appear arrogant."

Etymology

The adjective is derived from archive (“place for storing earlier, and often historical, material; material so kept, considered as a whole”, noun) + -al (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives). The noun is derived from archive (“to put (something) in an archive”, verb) + -al (suffix forming nouns, especially of verbal action).

Related phrases

archival science

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.