| memory (def. 11). |
[mem-uh-ree] 
| 1. | the mental capacity or faculty of retaining and reviving facts, events, impressions, etc., or of recalling or recognizing previous experiences. |
| 2. | this faculty as possessed by a particular individual: to have a good memory. |
| 3. | the act or fact of retaining and recalling impressions, facts, etc.; remembrance; recollection: to draw from memory. |
| 4. | the length of time over which recollection extends: a time within the memory of living persons. |
| 5. | a mental impression retained; a recollection: one's earliest memories. |
| 6. | the reputation of a person or thing, esp. after death; fame: a ruler of beloved memory. |
| 7. | the state or fact of being remembered. |
| 8. | a person, thing, event, fact, etc., remembered. |
| 9. | commemorative remembrance; commemoration: a monument in memory of Columbus. |
| 10. | the ability of certain materials to return to an original shape after deformation. |
| 11. | Also called computer memory, storage. Computers.
|
| 12. | Rhetoric. the step in the classical preparation of a speech in which the wording is memorized. |
| 13. | Cards. concentration (def. 7). |
"I am grown old and my memory is not as active as it used to be. When I was younger I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not; but my faculties are decaying now and soon I shall be so I cannot remember any but the things that never happened. It is sad to go to pieces like this, but we all have to do it." [Mark Twain]Memorize is 1591 in sense of "commit to writing," the mental meaning is from 1838.
memory mem·o·ry (měm'ə-rē)
n.
The mental faculty of retaining and recalling past experience based on the mental processes of learning, retention, recall, and recognition.
Persistent modification of behavior resulting from experience.
The capacity of a material, such as plastic or metal, to return to a previous shape after deformation.
The capability of the immune system to produce a specific secondary response to an antigen it has previously encountered.
computer memory
device that is used to store data or programs (sequences of instructions) on a temporary or permanent basis for use in an electronic digital computer. Computers represent information in binary code, written as sequences of 0s and 1s. Each binary digit (or "bit") may be stored by any physical system that can be in either of two stable states, to represent 0 and 1. Such a system is called bistable. This could be an on-off switch, an electrical capacitor that can store or lose a charge, a magnet with its polarity up or down, or a surface that can have a pit or not. Today capacitors and transistors, functioning as tiny electrical switches, are used for temporary storage, and either disks or tape with a magnetic coating, or plastic discs with patterns of pits are used for long-term storage
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