What does "archivist" mean?

One who is in charge of, or performs the task of creating, collecting, cataloguing and organising archives.

What is a synonym for "archivist"?

Common synonyms include: accountant, amanuensis, archiver, bookkeeper, clerk, documentalist.

Pronounced //ˈɑː(ɹ)kɪvɪst//.

//ˈɑː(ɹ)kɪvɪst// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Noun

1
One who is in charge of, or performs the task of creating, collecting, cataloguing and organising archives.
"The billionaire’s will established a trust to create a staff of archivists that would chronicle and preserve his rise to prominence."
2
a person in charge of collecting and cataloguing archives wordnet

"Picasso was no clown. He was a sarcastic commentator on a confused age, a great archivist of humanity's foolishness."

From archive + -ist.

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