Meaning & use
archival
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Meanings
adjectivebefore a noun
Relating to archives, or kept as part of a permanent collection of historical records.
Grammar: Comes before a noun and has no comparative form: archival records, not 'more archival records'.
Patterns
- archival material
- archival research
- archival records
- archival footage
The library holds a large collection of archival photographs from the 1920s.
Her thesis is based on archival research in three different cities.
The film uses archival footage of the first moon landing.
adjectivebefore a nouncomputingtechnical
Designed for long-term storage of computer files that are rarely used.
Grammar: Used in computing before nouns such as storage, copy, or system.
Patterns
- archival storage
- archival copy
- archival system
Old invoices are moved to archival storage after five years.
The team made an archival copy of the database before upgrading it.
Common combinations
- archival material
- Researchers must wear gloves when handling archival material.
- archival research
- Archival research can take months in a single reading room.
- archival footage
- The documentary mixes interviews with archival footage.
- archival records
- Births were recorded in archival records kept by the church.
- archival storage
- We keep scanned contracts in archival storage for legal reasons.
Synonyms and how they differ
- historical
- Describes anything from the past; archival is narrower and means belonging to or coming from an official record collection.
- documentary
- Refers to factual films or written evidence; archival stresses that the item is preserved in an archive.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: archival or archaeological?
archival vs archaeological
Archaeological relates to digging up ancient objects; archival relates to written or recorded material kept in archives.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'archival' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Archival' is an adjective placed before a noun, as in 'archival documents'. Options 2 and 4 wrongly use it as a verb (the verb is 'archive'), and option 3 wrongly treats it as a comparable adjective.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “archival”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.