# library

/ˈɫaɪbɹɛˌɹi/ (US) · /lˈaɪbɹəɹi/ (UK)

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/library
Updated: 2026-08-08

## Senses

### 1. building or institution

noun · CEFR A1

a building or room where you can borrow books, magazines, and other media.

For teachers: an institution or building that houses a collection of books and media for public or private use and lending.

- I need to go to the library to return these books before they are late.
- The local library has evolved into a community hub, offering digital resources and workshops alongside its traditional lending services.

### 2. private collection

noun · CEFR B1

a personal collection of books or information that someone owns.

For teachers: a private or specialized collection of books, records, or stored information.

- He has a large library of classic films in his basement.
- Over several decades, the professor amassed a private library that included rare first editions and obscure academic journals.

### 3. software code

noun · CEFR B2 · Technical

a collection of ready-made code that programmers use to build software.

For teachers: a collection of pre-written code, routines, or functions that a program can use to perform specific tasks.

- You can use a standard library to handle the math in your program.
- By importing a specialized graphics library, the developers were able to implement complex visual effects without writing the low-level code from scratch.

### 4. biological samples

noun · CEFR C1 · Technical

a collection of genetic material, like DNA, used for scientific research.

For teachers: a collection of DNA fragments from a single organism or related to a specific disease, stored for study.

- The researchers created a genomic library to study the plant's DNA.
- The laboratory maintains a vast library of viral strains to facilitate the rapid development of new vaccines during outbreaks.

## Examples

- This library helps you create charts and graphs.
- Instead of writing the code from scratch, I'll just import a graphics library that can draw the shapes for me.
- The new version of the machine learning library includes optimized algorithms that significantly reduce training time for large datasets, making it an essential upgrade for our project.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.