document

document 1 Document, monument, record, archive denote something preserved and serving as evidence (as of an event, a situation, or the thought of its time).

Document commonly designates something written or printed (as a letter, a charter, a deed, a will, or a book) or something carrying an inscription (as a coin, a tombstone, or a medal) that has value as evidence because of its con-temporaneousness

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while the poor little affairs of obscure, industrious men of letters are made the subject of intensive research, the far more romantic, thrilling, and illuminating documents about the seekers and makers of great fortunes, are neither gathered nor cherished— H. G. Wells

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The Waste Land seems to me chiefly important as a social document. It gives an authentic impression of the mentality of educated people in the psychological slump that took place immediately after the war— Day Lewis

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Monument is applicable to whatever serves as a memorial of the past; it is usually applied to a building, work of art, or other relic of the past, especially one that serves as a reminder (as of a country's greatness, a nation's triumphs in war, or a period's accomplishments in art)

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the French government has taken over many of the ancient cathedrals in order to preserve them as public monuments

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the English Church has no literary monument equal to that of Dante, no intellectual monument equal to that of St. Thomas, no devotional monument equal to that of St. John of the Cross— T. S. Eliot

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Record implies the intent to preserve evidence of something; it denotes matter recorded (as by writing or taping) so that exact knowledge of what has occurred will be perpetuated

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keep a record of a conversation

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the records of the trial were destroyed in a fire

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made six motion-picture records of his underseas expeditions— Current Biog.

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it is not only the right, but it is the judicial duty of the court, to examine the whole case as presented by the record— Taney

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Archive (see also MUSEUM) is applicable to a document or record preserved especially throughout a long period

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some rotten archive, rummaged out of some seldom-explored press— Lamb

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Its more common plural form archives suggests a miscellaneous accumulation, rather than a carefully selected collection, of records and documents

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the archives of the Vatican are now accessible to scholars

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the archives of every city— Dryden

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Analogous words: *evidence, testimony

2 instrument, *paper