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Album - 6 dictionary results

al⋅bum

  [al-buhm]
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–noun
1. a bound or loose-leaf book consisting of blank pages, pockets, envelopes, etc., for storing or displaying photographs, stamps, or the like, or for collecting autographs.
2. a phonograph record or set of records containing several musical selections, a complete play, opera, etc.: Her album of folk songs will be out next month.
3. the package or container for such a record or records: The album has a pocket for each record.
4. a printed book containing an anthology of writings, reproductions of photographs or artwork, musical compositions, etc.
Origin:
1645–55; 1955–60 for def. 2; < L: neut. sing. of albus white, i.e., a blank (tablet) painted white for writing on
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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al·bum   (āl'bəm)   
n.  
  1. A book with blank pages for the insertion and preservation of collections, as of stamps or photographs.
    1. A phonograph record, especially a long-playing record stored in a slipcase.
    2. A set of musical recordings stored together in jackets under one binding.
    3. The bound set of jackets for such a set.
    4. A recording of different musical pieces.
  3. A printed collection of musical compositions, pictures, or literary selections.
  4. A tall, handsomely printed book, popular especially in the 19th century, often having profuse illustrations and short, sentimental texts.

[Latin, blank tablet, from neuter of albus, white; see albho- in Indo-European roots.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Album

Al"bum\, n. [L., neut. of albus white: cf. F. album. Cf. Alb.]

1. (Rom. Antiq.) A white tablet on which anything was inscribed, as a list of names, etc.

2. A register for visitors' names; a visitors' book.

3. A blank book, in which to insert autographs sketches, memorial writing of friends, photographs, etc.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : Album
Spanish: álbum,
German: das Album,
Japanese: アルバム
More Translations »

album 
1651, from L. neut. of albus "white" (see alb). In classical times "a blank tablet on which the prætor's edicts and other public matters were inscribed." Revived 16c. by custom of German scholars to keep an album amicorum of colleagues' signatures, meaning then expanded into "book to collect souvenirs." According to Johnson, "a book in which foreigners have long been accustomed to insert autographs of celebrated people." Photographic albums first recorded 1859. Meaning "long-playing gramophone record" is from 1957, because the sleeves they came in resembled large albums.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Main Entry: album
—see PRONTOSIL ALBUM
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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album

in ancient Rome, a whitened board on which public notices were inscribed in black. The annals compiled by the pontifex maximus (chief priest), the annual edicts of the praetor, the lists of senators and jurors, the Acta diurna (an account of daily events), and other notices were placed on albums. From this practice is derived the present English word album, meaning a book of blank pages in which autographs, sketches, photographs, or the like are collected

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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