Memory definitions and example sentences on Wordnik

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Definitions (44)

American Heritage Dictionary (12)

noun The mental faculty of retaining and recalling past experience.
noun The act or an instance of remembering; recollection: spent the afternoon lost in memory.
noun All that a person can remember: It hasn't happened in my memory.

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Century Dictionary (26)

The mental capacity of retaining unconscious traces of conscious impressions or states, and of recalling these traces to consciousness with the attendant perception that they (or their objects) have a certain relation to the past; in a narrower sense, the power of such retention alone, the power or act of recalling being termed recollection. The application of the term is often extended, with more or less of figurativeness, to analogous physical processes. The power to revive again in our minds those ideas which after imprinting have disappeared, or have been as it were laid aside out of sight, … is memory. Locke, Human Understanding, II. x. 2. In memory there is necessarily some contrast of past and present, in retentiveness nothing but the persistence of the old. J. Ward, Encyc. Brit., XX. 47. Every organ—indeed, every area and every element—of the nervous system has its own memory. G. T. Ladd, Physiol. Psychology, p. 553.
The fact of retaining such mental impressions; remembrance; mental hold on the past; retrospect; recollection. Hyr throte, as I have now memoyre, Semed a round towre of yvoyre. Chaucer, Death of Blanche, l. 945. Who so trusteth to thi mercy Is endeles in thi memorie. Political Poems, etc. (ed. Furnivall), p. 252. And whan the kynge was come a-gein in to his memorie, he aroos and wente to cherche and was shriven. Merlin (E. E. T. S.), iii. 415. I'll note you in my book of memory. Shak., 1 Hen. VI., ii. 4. 101. A thousand fantasies Begin to throng into my memory. Milton, Comus, l. 206. Writing by memory only, as I do at present, I would gladly keep within my depth. Swift, Improving the English Tongue. Men once world-noised, now mere Ossian forms Of misty memory. Lowell, Agassiz, iv. 1.
Length of time included in the conscious experience or observation of an individual, a community, or any succession of persons; the period of time during which the acquisition of knowledge is possible. How first this world and face of things began, And what before thy memory was done. Milton, P. L., vii. 637. The Gild of Stratford-upon-Avon, … whose beginning was from time whereunto the memory of man runneth not. English Gilds (E. E. T. S.), Int., p. xxiii.

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Examples (50)

"I must not criticize her judgment, for her memory is my most precious possession and I know she loved me devotedly. — Mary Louise Solves a Mystery
That word Pentuer recorded sometimes, but more frequently he remembered it, for his memory was amazing No one in the noisy throng of the staff paid attention to these details. — The Pharaoh and the Priest An Historical Novel of Ancient Egypt
I waited a minute in perfect silence, but his memory was as treacherous as he was obstinately bent upon talking English, and then I again spoke to him, and he replied, "That is true, that you must--" Then he broke down again, and I broke up the conference, as I really could not wait until he formed English words, and he was evidently resolved that he would speak in no other language. — Olla Podrida
I am haunted by a strange apprehension that my memory will be a ghost that she will seek to shun. — Helen and Arthur or, Miss Thusa's Spinning Wheel
"Some parts of your memory ought to be amputated What a cutting thing to say!" — Rival Pitchers of Oakdale

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Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

American Heritage Dictionary (1)

Middle English memorie, from Anglo-French, from Latin memoria, from memor, mindful; see (s)mer-¹ in Indo-European roots.

Century Dictionary (1)

from Middle English memorie, also memoire, from Old French memorie, memoire, memore, French mémoire = Spanish Portuguese Italian memoria, from Latin memoria, the faculty of remembering, remembrance, memory, a historical account, from memor, mindful, remembering; cf. Greek μέρμερος, anxious, μέριμνα, care, thought, Sanskrit √ smar, remember. From Latin memor are also ult. English memorial, memorate, commemorate, remember, etc.

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