memory

mem·o·ry   (měm'ə-rē)    n.   pl. mem·o·ries The mental faculty of retaining and recalling past experience. The act or an instance of remembering; recollection: spent the afternoon lost in memory. All that a person can remember: It hasn't happened in my memory. Something remembered: pleasant childhood memories. The fact of being remembered; remembrance: dedicated to their parents' memory. The period of time covered by the remembrance or recollection of a person or group of persons: within the memory of humankind. Biology Persistent modification of behavior resulting from an animal's experience. Computer Science A unit of a computer that preserves data for retrieval. Capacity for storing information: two gigabytes of memory. Statistics The set of past events affecting a given event in a stochastic process. The capacity of a material, such as plastic or metal, to return to a previous shape after deformation. Immunology The ability of the immune system to respond faster and more powerfully to subsequent exposure to an antigen. [Middle English memorie, from Anglo-French, from Latin memoria, from memor, mindful; see (s)mer-1 in Indo-European roots.]

Memory

Mem"o*ry\, n.; pl. Memories. [OE. memorie, OF. memoire, memorie, F. m['e]moire, L. memoria, fr. memor mindful; cf. mora delay. Cf. Demur, Martyr, Memoir, Remember.]

1. The faculty of the mind by which it retains the knowledge of previous thoughts, impressions, or events.

Memory is the purveyor of reason. --Rambler.

2. The reach and positiveness with which a person can remember; the strength and trustworthiness of one's power to reach and represent or to recall the past; as, his memory was never wrong.

3. The actual and distinct retention and recognition of past ideas in the mind; remembrance; as, in memory of youth; memories of foreign lands.

4. The time within which past events can be or are remembered; as, within the memory of man.

And what, before thy memory, was done From the begining. --Milton.

5. Something, or an aggregate of things, remembered; hence, character, conduct, etc., as preserved in remembrance, history, or tradition; posthumous fame; as, the war became only a memory.

The memory of the just is blessed. --Prov. x. 7.

That ever-living man of memory, Henry the Fifth. --Shak.

The Nonconformists . . . have, as a body, always venerated her [Elizabeth's] memory. --Macaulay.

6. A memorial. [Obs.]

These weeds are memories of those worser hours. --Shak.

Syn: Memory, Remembrance, Recollection, Reminiscence.

Usage: Memory is the generic term, denoting the power by which we reproduce past impressions. Remembrance is an exercise of that power when things occur spontaneously to our thoughts. In recollection we make a distinct effort to collect again, or call back, what we know has been formerly in the mind. Reminiscence is intermediate between remembrance and recollection, being a conscious process of recalling past occurrences, but without that full and varied reference to particular things which characterizes recollection. "When an idea again recurs without the operation of the like object on the external sensory, it is remembrance; if it be sought after by the mind, and with pain and endeavor found, and brought again into view, it is recollection." --Locke.

To draw to memory, to put on record; to record. [Obs.] --Chaucer. Gower.

memory 

Main Entry: mem·o·ry
Pronunciation: 'mem-(&-)rE
Function: noun
Inflected Form: plural -ries
1 a : the power orprocess of reproducing or recalling what has been learned and retained especially through associative mechanisms b : the store of things learned and retained from an organism'sactivity or experience as indicated by modification of structure or behavior or by recall and recognition
2 : a capacity for showing effects as the result of past treatment or forreturning to a former condition —used especially of a material (as metal or plastic)

memory mem·o·ry (měm'ə-rē)
n.

1. The mental faculty of retaining and recalling past experience based on the mental processes of learning, retention, recall, and recognition.
2. Persistent modification of behavior resulting from experience.
3. The capacity of a material, such as plastic or metal, to return to a previous shape after deformation.
4. The capability of the immune system to produce a specific secondary response to an antigen it has previously encountered.

memory   (měm'ə-rē)  Pronunciation Key  The ability to remember past experiences or learned information, involving advanced mental processes such as learning, retention, recall, and recognition and resulting from chemical changes between neurons in several different areas of the brain, including the hippocampus. Immediate memory lasts for just a few seconds. Short-term memory stores information that has been minimally processed and is available only for a few minutes, as in remembering a phone number just long enough to use it. Short-term memory is transferred into long-term memory, which can last for many years, only when repeated use of the information facilitates neurochemical changes that allow it to be retained. The loss of memory because of disease or injury is called amnesia. The collection of information gained from past learning or experience that is stored in a person's mind. A piece of information, such as the mental image of an experience, that is stored in the memory. A part of a computer in which data is stored for later use. The capacity of a computer, chips, and storage devices to preserve data and programs for retrieval. Memory is measured in bytes. See more at hard disk, RAM, ROM. A part of a computer in which data is stored for later use. The capacity of a computer, chips, and storage devices to preserve data and programs for retrieval. Memory is measured in bytes. See more at hard disk, RAM, ROM. The capacity of a material, such as plastic or metal, to return to a previous shape or condition. The capacity of the immune system to produce a specific immune response to an antigen it has previously encountered.

memory storage
These days, usually used synonymously with Random Access Memory or Read-Only Memory, but in the general sense it can be any device that can hold data in machine-readable format.
(1996-05-25)

memory

see commit to memory; in memory of.