archive

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A place or collection containing records, documents, or other materials of historical interest.
• noun A long-term storage area, often on magnetic tape, for backup copies of files or for files that are no longer in active use.
• noun A file containing one or more files in compressed format for more efficient storage and transfer.
• noun A repository for stored memories or information.
• transitive verb To place or store in an archive.
• transitive verb Computers To copy or compress (a file) into an archive.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun A place where public records or other historical documents are kept: now only in the plural.
• noun A record or document preserved in evidence of something; in the plural, documents or records relating to the rights, privileges, claims, treaties, constitutions, etc., of a family, corporation, community, or nation.
• noun Synonyms Record-office, registry.
• noun Registers, chronicles, annals, muniments.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun The place in which public records or historic documents are kept.
• noun Public records or documents preserved as evidence of facts.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun A place for storing earlier, and often historical, material. An archive usually contains documents (letters, records, newspapers, etc.) or other types of media kept for historical interest.
• noun The material so kept, considered as a whole (compare archives).
• verb To put into an archive.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a depository containing historical records and documents
• verb put into an archive