li·brar·y  (lī′brĕr′ē)

n. pl. li·brar·ies

1.

a. A place in which reading materials, such as books, periodicals, and newspapers, and often other materials such as musical and video recordings, are kept for use or lending.

b. A collection of such materials, especially when systematically arranged.

c. A room in a private home for such a collection.

d. An institution or foundation maintaining such a collection.

2. A set of things similar to a library in appearance, function, or organization, especially:

a. A series of books issued by a publisher.

b. A collection of standard routines used in computer programs, usually stored as an executable file.

c. A collection of cloned DNA sequences whose location and identity can be established by mapping the genome of a particular organism.

d. A collection of proteins generated from the collected DNA sequences that express them, used for tracking metabolic functions of proteins in diseases such as cancer, for the synthesis of new drugs, and for other proteomics research.

[Middle English librarie, from Anglo-Norman, from Latin librārium, bookcase, from neuter of librārius, of books, from liber, libr-, inner bark of trees used as a writing material, book.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

n, pl -braries

1. (Library Science & Bibliography) a room or set of rooms where books and other literary materials are kept

2. (Library Science & Bibliography) a collection of literary materials, films, CDs, children's toys, etc, kept for borrowing or reference

3. (Library Science & Bibliography) the building or institution that houses such a collection: a public library.

4. (Library Science & Bibliography) a set of books published as a series, often in a similar format

5. (Computer Science) computing a collection of standard programs and subroutines for immediate use, usually stored on disk or some other storage device

6. a collection of specific items for reference or checking against: a library of genetic material.

[C14: from Old French librairie, from Medieval Latin librāris, n use of Latin librārius relating to books, from liber book]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

1.

a. a place, as a building or set of rooms, containing books, recordings, or other reading, viewing, or listening materials arranged and cataloged in a fixed way.

b. such a place together with the staff maintaining it, as a public facility funded by a government, as part of a school, business, etc., or as a private establishment.

2. any collection of books, or the space containing them.

3. any set of items resembling a library in appearance, organization, or purpose: a library of computer software.

4. a series of books of similar character or alike in size, binding, etc., issued by a single publishing house.

[1300–50; Middle English libraire < Middle French librairie < Medieval Latin librāria, n. use of feminine of Latin librārius (adj.) of books]

pron: library, with two barely separated r-sounds, is particularly vulnerable to dissimilation - the tendency for neighboring like sounds to become unlike, or for one of them to disappear altogether. The pronunciation (ˈlaɪ brɛr i) therefore, while still the most common, is frequently reduced by educated speakers, both in the U.S. and in England, to the dissimilated (ˈlaɪ bə ri) or (ˈlaɪ bri) A third dissimilated form (ˈlaɪ bɛr i) is more likely to be heard from less educated or very young speakers and is often criticized. See colonel, February.

Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.

Examples: library of God’s law, 1703; of opinions, 1570; of reason, 1485; of my understanding, 1549.

Dictionary of Collective Nouns and Group Terms. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

1. 'library'

A library is a building where books are kept that people can look at or borrow.

You can borrow the book from your local library.

A library is also a private collection of books, or a room in a large house where books are kept.

I once stayed in one of his houses and saw his library.

2. 'bookshop'

Don't refer to a shop where you can buy books as a 'library'. In Britain, a shop like this is called a bookshop. In America, it is called a bookstore.

I went into the bookshop to buy a present for my son.

My wife works in a bookstore.

Collins COBUILD English Usage © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 2004, 2011, 2012