Library
nounA building or room housing a collection of books and other resources for reading, borrowing, or reference.
How to spell library
7 letters · 3 syllables
How to pronounce library
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does library mean?
- nounA building or room housing a collection of books and other resources for reading, borrowing, or reference.
Library in a sentence
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I returned my book to the library.
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The local library has a quiet reading room.
Where does library come from?
Language of origin: Latin
The word comes from the Latin librarium, meaning 'a chest or place for books', which was built on liber, the Latin word for 'book'. Originally liber referred to the inner bark of a tree, the very material people once wrote on before paper, so the word literally tied books to their earliest writing surface. English took the word in through Old French librarie during the 1300s, at first meaning a collection of books and later the building that houses them. The same liber root survives in 'libretto', the little book of words for an opera, and in the French 'librairie', which confusingly means a bookshop rather than a library. The spelling trap is purely about sound: the first 'r' in 'lib-RA-ry' is often swallowed in speech, so writers drop it and produce the misspelling 'libary'.
How the word is built
- libr- (from Latin liber: book)
- -ary (place for, noun suffix)
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