record

An item of information put into a temporary or permanent physical medium.

Adjective

  1. Enough to break previous records and set a new one; world-class; historic.
    • "But it's far worse for me," said Edmund, "because you'll at least have a room of your own and I shall have to share a bedroom with that record stinker, Eustace." - 1952, C. S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader:

    Synonyms: record-breaking record-setting

Origin

From Middle English recorde, borrowed from Old French record, from recorder. See record.

Noun

  1. An item of information put into a temporary or permanent physical medium.
    • The person had a record of the interview so she could review her notes.
    • The tourist's photographs and the tape of the police call provide a record of the crime.
    • He draws eclectically on studies of baboons, descriptive anthropological accounts of hunter-gatherer societies and, in a few cases, the fossil record. - 2012 March-April, John T. Jost, “Social Justice: Is It in Our...
  2. Any instance of a physical medium on which information was put for the purpose of preserving it and making it available for future reference.
    • We have no record of you making this payment to us.
    • My remarks were struck from the record.

    Synonyms: log

  3. Ellipsis of phonograph record (“a disc, usually made from vinyl, on which sound is recorded and may be replayed on a phonograph”).
    • I still like records better than CDs.
    • He's the record doctor / Tell him your woes / He'll reach in his bag / And he'll give you a dose - 2012, “Record Doctor”, performed by Saint Etienne:

    Synonyms: disc phonograph record vinyl

    1. (by extension, informal) A music album; broadly, any music released as a single, EP, etc.

      Synonyms: disc phonograph record vinyl

  4. A set of data relating to a single individual or item.
    • Pull up the record on John Smith. What's his medical history?
  5. A data structure similar to a struct, in some programming languages such as C and Java based on classes and designed for storing immutable data.
    • This chapter examines another data structure, the record (available in Pascal but not in all other high-level languages). Records make it easier to organize and represent information in Pascal, a major reason for the...
    • The new record type provides another solution. A record is a class-like construct for data classes, a restricted form of class like enums and annotations. - 2020, Ian F. Darwin, Java Cookbook, O'Reilly Media, →ISBN,...
    • A record is a special kind of class that's designed to work well with immutable (readonly) data. - 2021, Joseph Albahari, C# 9.0 in a Nutshell, O'Reilly Media, →ISBN, page 210:

    Coordinate Terms: struct enumeration

  6. The most extreme known value of some variable, particularly that of an achievement in competitive events.
    • The heat and humidity were both new records.
    • Australia set a record of 10 back-to-back T20I wins.
    • He broke the record for the youngest English captain.

Forms

records

Hyponyms

activation record broken record data record public record world record

Derived

activation record address of record attorney of record attorney record broken record business record change the record court of record criminal record data record extract from the judicial record for the record fossil record glue record golden record gold record go on record gramophone record in record time lap record master boot record matter of record medical record memo for record

Verb

  1. To make a record of information.
    • I wanted to record every detail of what happened, for the benefit of future generations.
    • The display and result must be placed in the context that was it was against a side that looked every bit their Fifa world ranking of 141 - but England completed the job with efficiency to record their biggest away win...
  2. To make an audio or video recording of.
    • Within a week they had recorded both the song and the video for it.
    • However, the ability to record people without their knowledge, with the stroke of a finger over the spectacle frame or a voice command, has prompted privacy concerns. - 2014 June 29, Adam Sherwin, “UK cinemas ban Google...
  3. To give legal status to by making an official public record.
    • When the deed was recorded, we officially owned the house.
  4. To fix in a medium, usually in a tangible medium.
  5. To make an audio, video, or multimedia recording.
  6. To repeat; to practice.
  7. To sing or repeat a tune.
    • 1595, George Peele, The Old Wives’ Tale, The Malone Society Reprints, 1908, lines 741-742, Come Berecynthia, let vs in likewise, And heare the Nightingale record hir notes.
    • They long’d to see the day, to heare the larke Record her hymnes and chant her carols blest, - 1600, Torquato Tasso, translated by Edward Fairfax, Godfrey of Bulloigne, or The Recouerie of Ierusalem, London: I. Iaggard...
    • […] to the lute She sung, and made the night-bird mute, That still records with moan; - c. 1607–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, [George Wilkins?], The Late, and Much Admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of...
  8. To reflect; to ponder.
    • […] he was […] carried to the Scaffold on the Tower-hill […], himself praying all the way, and recording upon the words which he before had read. - 1655, Thomas Fuller, “Section 3”, in The Church-history of Britain;...

Origin

From Middle English recorden (“to repeat, to report”), borrowed from Old French recorder (“to get by heart”), from Latin recordārī (“remember, call to mind”), from re- (“back, again”) + cor (“heart; mind”).

Forms

records recording recorded

Antonyms

erase

Derived

audiorecord misrecord over-record pre-record prerecord recordability recordable recordal recordance recordation recordee recorder recording rerecord re-record self-recording tape-record telerecord underrecord unrecord unrecorded videorecord