Journal
adj, noun, verb ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A diary or daily record of a person, organization, vessel etc.; daybook.
- 2 The amount of land that can be worked in a day.
"Yet the whole extent of cultured country, or all the fields actually cultivated for the ſupport of the inhabitants, will hardly exceed two millions of journaux (or day’s work); above three millions lie entirely waſte; and 850,000 journaux are covered with ſand."
- 3 The part of a shaft or axle that rests on bearings.
- 4 the part of the axle contained by a bearing wordnet
- 5 A newspaper or magazine dealing with a particular subject.
"The university's biology department subscribes to half a dozen academic journals."
Show 8 more definitions
- 6 a record book as a physical object wordnet
- 7 A chronological record of payments or receipts.
- 8 a daily written record of (usually personal) experiences and observations wordnet
- 9 A general journal.
- 10 a periodical dedicated to a particular subject wordnet
- 11 A chronological record of changes made to a database or other system; along with a backup or image copy that allows recovery after a failure or reinstatement to a previous time; a log.
- 12 a ledger in which transactions have been recorded as they occurred wordnet
- 13 the part of a rotating shaft that rests on the bearing
- 1 To archive or record something. transitive
- 2 To insert (a shaft, an axle, etc) into a journal bearing.
"In a harvester binder having a hollow shaft journalled at right angles to the main axle and driving motion from the main driving wheel, a spindle journalled within the hollow shaft and having the needle attached to one of its ends[…]"
- 3 To scrapbook. intransitive, transitive
- 4 To insert (a shaft, etc.) in a journal bearing. transitive
- 1 Daily. not-comparable, obsolete
"[…]his faint ſteedes watred in Ocean deepe, / Whiles from their iournall labours they did reſt[…]."
Example
More examples"This technical journal is above me."
Etymology
From Middle English journal, from Anglo-Norman jurnal (“daily”), from Old French jornel (“day”) (whence modern French journal), from Latin diurnālis, from diurnus (“of the day”). Doublet of diurnal and the journal from French.
From French journal. Doublet of diurnal and the journal from Middle English.
Unknown, apparently of Scots origin. Perhaps from chirnel, from English kernel (“lump in the flesh”), owing to resemblance in shape.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.