I. ˈmem(ə)rē, -ri noun
( -es )
Etymology: Middle English memorie, from Middle French memorie, memoire, from Latin memoria, from memor mindful + -ia -y; akin to Old English ge mimor well-known, mimorian to remember, Middle Dutch mimeren to muse, brood, Latin mora delay, Old Irish airmert prohibition, Greek mermēra trouble, Sanskrit smarati he remembers; basic meaning: to remember
1.
a. archaic : a ceremony of commemoration : a service for the dead
b. obsolete : a historical or biographical record
c. obsolete : memorial , memento
2.
a.
(1) : the power or process of reproducing or recalling what has been learned and retained especially through nonconscious associative mechanisms : conscious or unconscious evocation of things past
semantic reception is associated with great use of memory — Norbert Wiener
seemed lost in thought or memory — E.A.McCourt
in memory , one images or reproduces his whole state of mind on the remembered occasion — Richard Taylor
(2) : this power regarded as vested in an individual : an individual's capacity for reproducing or recalling what has been learned and retained
has a good memory for faces
rely on the faulty memory of a cross section of people — S.L.Payne
his memory annoyed him … it did not work willingly any more — Stuart Cloete
(3) : the process of reproducing or recalling what has been learned as manifested in some special way or as associated with some bodily process
visual memory
muscular memory
b. : persistent modification of structure or of behavior resulting from an organism's activity or from its passively acquired experience
c.
(1) : the totality of what has been learned and retained especially as evidenced by recall and recognition
drew on his memory to supply the needed names
even birds and animals have an ancestral memory — Horizon
(2) : the function of memory regarded as a compartment or chamber in which images, perceptions, or learning are stored
filling their memory with a lumber of words — R.L.Stevenson
the invisible storehouse in nothingness, called memory — Walter Sorell & Denver Lindley
retain in their memory the preceding movements — George Balanchine
a richly stored memory
3.
a.
(1) : commemorative remembrance
a statue erected in memory of the hero
has been held in memory in Ireland — Maxwell Nurnberg & Morris Rosenblum
a local museum dedicated to the memory of the celebrity — American Guide Series: Maine
(2) : a person or thing held in commemorative remembrance
his deeds are the country's proudest memories
b. : the fact or condition of being remembered
memory of such upheavals goes back to remote antiquity
persecutions which were of recent memory — K.S.Latourette
4.
a. : a particular act of recalling something learned or experienced : the fact or a condition of recalling : remembrance , recollection , recall
woke with … complete memory of where she had been — Pearl Buck
have no memory of that incident
recited the poem from memory
b.
(1) : an image, impression, or other mental trace of someone or something known or experienced : the content of something remembered
my first memory is one of being held up to a window — George Dangerfield
the memory of his voice as distinct in her mind as it ever had been in her ear — Glenway Wescott
pleasant memories of an Italian summer
the memory of the captain's wife had not left him — Carson McCullers
memories of the Japanese occupation … created a heritage of ill will — R.H.Fifield
have written down their memory … of one such occasion — F.I.Cobb
made the town's isolation a memory — American Guide Series: Texas
the course is a memory and a mark is no longer even a ghost — Norman Nathan
the depression is only a bad memory
(2) : the total impression or generalized image of a person preserved in remembrance, history, or tradition : posthumous opinion
this ruler left behind him golden memories
a prince of glorious memory
(3) : the character, personality, or achievements of a person as preserved in remembrance
the man whose memory the Royal Irish Academy honors — Gearoid O'Sullivan
his memory recalled the most wonderful and exciting … adventures — R.H.Davis
hates her memory and all other women — Lucy M. Montgomery
c. : the time within which past events can be or are remembered
within the memory of living men
5. : concentration 5
6.
a. : a component in an electronic computing machine (as a computer) in which information (as data or program instructions) may be inserted and stored and from which it may be extracted when wanted
b. : a device external to a computer for the insertion, storage, and extraction of information
7.
a. : a capacity for showing effects recognized as the result of past treatment — used especially of materials
the wire begins to turn in the other direction corresponding to the first twisting — the memory of the recent short-term handling has been obliterated by that of the more remote but longer lasting and therefore more impressive one — Bernhard Gross
b. : a capacity for returning to a former condition (as after being stretched) — used especially of a material
the memory will cause the material to resume the shape it had when you purchased it — Road Magazine
Synonyms:
remembrance , recollection , reminiscence , mind , souvenir : memory applies both to the faculty of remembering and to what is remembered, sometimes remembered dearly or cherished
a very good memory
a memory training course
it was the merest memory now, vague and a little sweet, like the remembrance of some exceptional spring day — John Galsworthy
remembrance can be the same as memory but more often refers to the act of remembering and usually to a particular act of remembering especially something pleasant or cherished in memory, or it may apply to the state of being remembered
the only moments I've lived my life to the full and that live in remembrance unfaded — W.W.Gibson
the vivid remembrance of an almost identical setting one evening — Henry Miller
the remembrance of things past — Shakespeare
the remembrance of the event always brought a pang of regret
recollection is like remembrance but carries a strong suggestion of more voluntary and sometimes effortful recalling to mind, and it may apply to the thing remembered in this way
they have a tendency to forget the facts of the present in their fond recollection of the past — S.M.Crothers
you ask me to put down a few recollections of your father — W.E.H.Lecky
reminiscence may refer to remembrance of something long past, especially as remembered casually and accidentally; it is closely synonymous with recollection in references to what is remembered
would use all the techniques of modern psychology in his analyses of the subconscious; the phenomena of involuntary reminiscence fascinate him — B.M.Woodbridge
the author's own reminiscences of childhood and youth are a good deal less pretentious and more amusing than this model — Times Literary Supplement
mind in this sense commonly appears only in a few idiomatic phrases
to keep in mind
out of sight, out of mind
souvenir may still be used as a synonym of memory
then she carefully restored them, her mind full of souvenirs newly awakened — Arnold Bennett
II. noun
: capacity for storing information
64 megabytes of memory