Armory

How to spell armory

6 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce armory

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does armory mean?

1. nounA place where weapons and military equipment are stored.
2. nounA building serving as headquarters and a training site for a National Guard or reserve unit, often used for community events.

Armory in a sentence

• The soldiers returned their rifles to the armory at the end of the drill.

• The local craft fair was held in the old downtown armory every spring.

• A locked door separated the barracks from the armory.

• The band played a sold-out concert at the city armory.

Where does armory come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin arma, meaning 'weapons' or 'tools of war', and more directly to armarium, which described a chest or closet used for storing equipment. The term travelled into English through Old French forms such as armarie and armoire, which still survive in modern French as the word for a cupboard or wardrobe. By the late 1300s English had adopted it for a place where weapons and armour were kept, and the spelling settled with the familiar '-ory' ending that marks a place, as in 'dormitory' or 'factory'. The same arma root underlies a whole family of military words, including 'arms', 'army', 'armament', and 'armour'. The 'armory' spelling is the standard American form, while British and Canadian writers usually prefer 'armoury', which is the source of the doubled-letter spelling trap.

How the word is built

• arm (weapon, from Latin arma)
• -ory (place where something is kept)

British and American spelling

Armory is the American spelling. British English spells it armoury.