Library definition
A software library.
An example of a library is 10 mystery novels that you own.
An example of a library is a room in your house with bookshelves and lots of books.
An example of a library is a building you visit in your town where you are allowed to get a card to check out books.
- A series of books issued by a publisher.
- A collection of standard routines used in computer programs, usually stored as an executable file.
- A collection of cloned DNA sequences whose location and identity can be established by mapping the genome of a particular organism.
- A collection of proteins generated from the collected DNA sequences that express them, used for tracking metabolic functions of proteins in diseases such as cancer, for the synthesis of new drugs, and for other proteomics research.
Other Word Forms
Noun
Origin of library
- Middle English librarie from Anglo-Norman from Latin librārium bookcase from neuter of librārius of books from liber libr- inner bark of trees used as a writing material, book
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
- Middle English librarie, from Anglo-Norman librarie, from Old French librairie, from Latin librarium (“bookcase, chest for books"), from librarius (“concerning books"), from liber (“the inner bark of trees, paper, parchment, book"), probably derived from a Proto-Indo-European base *leub(h) (“to strip, to peel"). Displaced native Middle English bochus, bochous (“library, bookhouse") (from Old English bōchÅ«s (“library, bookhouse")).
From Wiktionary