ENGLISH
REFERENCE

magazine

n.
A1 Beginner Oxford US //ˈmæɡəˌzin// UK //mˌæɡɐzˈiːn// mag·a·zine Archaic General-service

n. a type of thin book with a soft cover that you can buy regularly, like every week or month. It has articles and photos about a particular subject, such as sports, fashion, or news.

n. a periodical publication with a soft cover, containing articles and illustrations that typically cover a particular subject or area of interest


SIMPLE

She reads a fashion magazine every month.

CONTEXTUAL

He subscribed to the science magazine to keep up with the latest space discoveries.

COMPLEX

Although its print circulation has declined, the magazine continues to shape public discourse through its in-depth investigative journalism and powerful online photo essays.

Synonyms
Origin

The word arrived in English in the 1580s as magasyne, having been lifted from Middle French magasin, which had earlier been borrowed from Italian magazzino. Both continental forms simply meant “warehouse, storehouse”, a sense that followed the term across the Channel. Behind the Romance scenery lay the Arabic مَخَازِن (maḵāzin), the regular plural of مَخْزَن (maḵzan) “storeroom”, itself formed from the verb خَزَنَ (ḵazana) “to store, to stock up”.

That commercial itinerary—from warehouse to periodical—was completed two centuries later when printers began calling their paper-bound miscellanies magazines: they were, after all, storehouses of prose.

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