Database

//ˈdeɪtəˌbeɪs// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A collection of (usually) organized information in a regular structure, usually but not necessarily in a machine-readable format accessible by a computer. broadly

    "I have a database of all my contacts in my personal organizer."

  2. 2
    an organized body of related information wordnet
  3. 3
    A set of tables and other objects (queries, reports, forms) in the form of a structured data set.

    "The "books" database will have three tables, and the "customers" database will have two tables."

  4. 4
    A software program (application) for storing, retrieving and manipulating such a structured data set. broadly, metonymically

    "Which database do you use: MySQL or Oracle?"

  5. 5
    A combination of such data sets and the programs for using them. broadly, metonymically
Verb
  1. 1
    To enter (data) into a database. transitive

    "The resulting citation collection was databased and coded for meaning, etymon, and date range (earliest and latest occurrence found)."

Synonyms

All synonyms
datadata setdatabankdatabankdatabase management systemdatabase management system

Example

More examples

"Please change your database to reflect the new address as follows."

Etymology

From data + base.

Related phrases

bibliographic databasecontainer databasedatabase administratordatabase analystdatabase enginedatabase keydatabase management systemdatabase modeldatabase publishingdatabase transactiondatabase-firstdistributed database

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