REPOSITORY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does repository mean? 

• REPOSITORY (noun)
  The noun REPOSITORY has 3 senses:

1. a facility where things can be deposited for storage or safekeeping

2. a person to whom a secret is entrusted

3. a burial vault (usually for some famous person)

  Familiarity information: REPOSITORY used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• REPOSITORY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A facility where things can be deposited for storage or safekeeping

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

deposit; depositary; depository; repository

Hypernyms ("repository" is a kind of...):

facility; installation (a building or place that provides a particular service or is used for a particular industry)

Meronyms (parts of "repository"):

storage space (the area in any structure that provides space for storage)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "repository"):

archive (a depository containing historical records and documents)

bank; bank building (a building in which the business of banking transacted)

drop (a central depository where things can be left or picked up)

depository library; library (a depository built to contain books and other materials for reading and study)

lost-and-found (repository in a public building where lost articles can be kept until their owners reclaim them)

museum (a depository for collecting and displaying objects having scientific or historical or artistic value)

repertory (a storehouse where a stock of things is kept)

sperm bank (a depository for storing sperm)

depot; entrepot; storage; store; storehouse (a depository for goods)

treasury (a depository (a room or building) where wealth and precious objects can be kept safely)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A person to whom a secret is entrusted

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

repository; secretary

Hypernyms ("repository" is a kind of...):

confidant; intimate (someone to whom private matters are confided)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A burial vault (usually for some famous person)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

monument; repository

Hypernyms ("repository" is a kind of...):

burial chamber; sepulcher; sepulchre; sepulture (a chamber that is used as a grave)

 Context examples 

The new repository will store plant, animal and microorganism stocks at the Embrapa Genetic Resources & Biotechnology unit in Brasília for the chief purpose of ensuring food security.

(LatAm's largest gene bank unveiled in Brasília, Agência BRASIL)

They also have some unusual characteristics that make them scientifically interesting repositories for materials like DBC, which are carried into the lakes by local streams or through atmospheric circulation.

(Antarctic lakes are a repository for ancient soot, NSF)

I went; sought the repository he had mentioned, found the articles named, and returned with them.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

A repository of biospecimens - including tissue samples, fluids such as blood, serum and urine, and molecular derivatives such as DNA, RNA and proteins pertaining to cancer research.

(Cancer Biobank, NCI Thesaurus)

A unique gene name within a specific repository, database, or collection.

(Gene Identifier, NCI Thesaurus)

I found a tremendous blank, in the place of that smiling repository of my confidence.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The testing program and repository is now run by the NCI Developmental Therapeutics Program (DTP).

(NSC Number, NCI Thesaurus)

An indication that representative samples have been received and are present in the repository.

(In the Repository, NCI Thesaurus)

A grid service that provides a repository responsible for storing and linking data models as defined within namespaces in a distributed environment.

(caGrid Global Model Exchange, NCI Thesaurus)

She had sat two lecture courses under Professor Caldwell and looked up to him as the living repository of all knowledge.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)