memoria

See also: memória and memòria

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin memoria, from memor (“mindful, remembering”). Doublet of memoir and memory.

Pronunciation

• (General American) enPR: mə-môrʹē-ə, IPA^(key): /məˈmɔɹi.ə/
• Rhymes: -ɔːɹiə
• Hyphenation: me‧mo‧ri‧a

Noun

memoria (uncountable)

1. One of the five canons of classical rhetoric: the discipline of memory and recall.

Related terms

• pro memoria

See also

• dispositio
• elocutio
• inventio
• pronuntiatio

Aragonese

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /meˈmoɾja/
• Rhymes: -oɾja
• Syllabification: me‧mo‧ria

Noun

memoria f (plural memorias)

1. memory

References

• Bal Palazios, Santiago (2002), “memoria”, in Dizionario breu de a luenga aragonesa, Zaragoza, →ISBN

Asturian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /meˈmoɾja/ [meˈmo.ɾja]
• Rhymes: -oɾja
• Syllabification: me‧mo‧ria

Noun

memoria f (plural memories)

1. memory (ability to recall)
2. memory (stored record)

Chavacano

Etymology

Inherited from Spanish memoria.

Pronunciation

(noun)

IPA^(key): /memoɾiˈa/ [me.mo.ɾi.ˈa] (verb)

• Hyphenation: me‧mo‧ria

Noun

memoria

1. memory

Verb

memoriá

1. to memorize

Galician

Alternative forms

• memória (reintegrationist)

Etymology

Inherited from Old Galician-Portuguese memoria, from Latin memoria (“memory”), from memor (“mindful, remembering”) +‎ -ia. Cognate with Portuguese memória.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /meˈmɔɾja/ [mẽˈmɔ.ɾjɐ]
• Rhymes: -ɔɾja
• Hyphenation: me‧mor‧ia

Noun

memoria f (plural memorias)

1. (uncountable) memory (the ability of the brain to record information or impressions with the facility of recalling them later at will.)

   de memoria ― from memory

   memoria comprensiva ― comprehensive memory

   memoria fotográfica ― photograpic memory

   Ten unha memoria prodixiosa: a súa cabeza rexistra todo.

   He has a prodigious memory; his head records everything.

   Disque os elefantes teñen moita memoria.

   They say elephants have a lot of memory.

2. a memory (a record of a thing or an event stored and available for later use by the organism.)

   Synonym: de cor

   Nos últimos vinte anos, non hai memoria dun feito semellante a ese.

   In the last twenty years, there is no memory of a fact similar to that.

   Fixeron unha homenaxe para honrar a memoria do falecido.

   They did a tribute to honor the memory of the deceased.

   É incrible, ten unha memoria fotográfica.

   It’s amazing, he has a photographic memory.

   Falo de memoria, non o sei exactamente.

   I speak from memory; I don’t know exactly.

   Recitou os reis españois de memoria.

   He recited the Spanish kings by heart/memory.

   Non aprendas a lección de memoria.

   Don’t learn the lesson from memory.

3. (computing) a memory (the part of a computer that stores variable executable code or data (RAM) or unalterable executable code or default data (ROM).)

   Synonym: caché

   memoria auxiliar ― auxiliary memory

   memoria central ― central memory

   memoria de acceso secuencial ― sequential access memory

   memoria principal ― main memory

   posición de memoria ― memory position

   memoria USB ― USB memorystick

   memoria tobo ― memory cache

   Mercaron un ordenador novo con moita memoria.

   They bought a new computer with a lot of memory.

   Unha máquina de escribir con memoria

   A typewriter with memory.

4. a writing to inform someone about a matter of importance

   Synonym: informe

   Unha memoria dun proxecto de investigación.

   A report of a research project.

5. (chiefly in the plural) a list of acts, works or economic results carried out by a company or corporation, included in a document, which is made available to partners or interested parties
6. (chiefly in the plural) a list of expenses incurred in a business in an economic period

   Synonyms: tese de licenciatura, tese

   memoria de licenciatura ― degree report

7. (chiefly in the plural) a memoir (an autobiography; a book describing the personal experiences of an author or a biography; a book describing the experiences of a subject from personal knowledge of the subject or from sources with personal knowledge of the subject.)

   Synonym: biografía

References

• “memoria”, in DIGALEGO - Dicionario de Galego (in Galician), Ir Indo; Xunta de Galicia, 2013 [2004]
• “memoria”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, 2012–2026

Interlingua

Noun

memoria (plural memorias)

1. memory

Italian

Etymology

Inherited from Latin memoria.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /meˈmɔ.rja/
• Rhymes: -ɔrja
• Hyphenation: me‧mò‧ria

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

memoria f (plural memorie)

1. (uncountable) memory, recall (the ability of the brain to record information)

   Antonym: oblio

   sapere a memoria ― to know by memory; to know by heart

2. (countable) memory, recollection, remembrance (a record of a thing or an event stored and available for later use)

   Synonym: ricordo

3. (computing, electronics) memory (the part of a computer that stores variable executable code or data)
4. note

   prendere memoria di ― to take note of

5. (in the plural) memoir, autobiography
6. monograph

   Synonym: monografia

Related terms

• memorabile
• memorandum
• memore
• memorevole
• memoriale
• memorizzare

Further reading

• “memoria”, in Vocabolario Treccani on line (in Italian), Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, 2026

Anagrams

• remiamo

Ladino

Etymology

Inherited from Old Spanish memoria (“memory”), from Latin memoria.

Noun

memoria f (Hebrew spelling מימורייה)

1. memory (the ability of the brain to record information; the ability to remember)
   • 1910, Reuben Eliyahu Israel, Traducsion libera de las poezias ebraicas de Roş Aşana i Kipur‎^[1], Craiova: Institutul Grafic, I. Samitca şi D. Baraş, Socieatate in Comandita, →OCLC, page 11:

     En mi corason esta tu memoria santa
     Dia i noce de mi no se aparta

     In my heart lies your holy memory, day and night it separates not from me.

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [mɛˈmɔ.ri.a]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [meˈmɔː.ri.a]

Etymology 1

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *(s)mer-der.?

Latin memor

Proto-Indo-European *-(i)yós

Proto-Italic *-ijos

Proto-Italic *-ios

Old Latin -ios

Latin -ius

Latin -ia

Latin memoria

From memor (“mindful, remembering”) + -ia.

Noun

memoria f (genitive memoriae); first declension

1. memory; the ability to remember
   • 55 BCE, Cicero, De oratore 1.1:

     Cōgitantī mihi saepenumerō, et memoriā vetera repetentī, perbeātī fuisse, Quīnte frāter, illī vidērī solent...

     When I often start thinking and recall my memories of the old days, my brother Quintus, those men of old usually seem to have been very blessed...

     (literally, “To me thinking often and seeking old things off memory, my brother Quintus, those men seem to have been very blessed”)

2. a remembrance, a thing remembered
3. (by extension) a time of remembrance

Declension

First-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	memoria	memoriae
genitive	memoriae	memoriārum
dative	memoriae	memoriīs
accusative	memoriam	memoriās
ablative	memoriā	memoriīs
vocative	memoria	memoriae

Derived terms

• memoriālis
• memoriola
• memoriōsus
• memorō

Related terms

• memor
• memorābilis
• memorātor
• memoriter

Descendants

• Catalan: memòria
• Italian: memoria
• Old French: memoire
  • Middle French: memoire
    • French: mémoire
      • Haitian Creole: memwa
      • Mauritian Creole: memwar
      • → English: memoir
• Romanian: memorie
• Sicilian: mimòria, mimoria

Borrowings

• → Old Irish: mebuir
  • Middle Irish: mebair, mebar, memor
    • Irish: meabhair
    • Scottish Gaelic: meomhair
• → Old Galician-Portuguese: memória, memorea
  • Fala: memoria
  • Galician: memoria, memória
  • Portuguese: memória
• → Old Spanish: memoria
  • Ladino: memoria, מימורייה
  • Spanish: memoria
• → Proto-Brythonic: *meβ̃ör
  • Welsh: myfyr

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Adjective

memoria

1. nominative/accusative neuter plural of memor

References

• “memoria”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “memoria”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "memoria", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “memoria”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎^[2], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • our contemporaries; men of our time: homines huius aetatis, nostrae memoriae
    
  • to remember a thing perfectly: memoriam alicuius rei tenere
    
  • to impress on the memory: memoriae mandare aliquid
    
  • to recall a thing to one's recollection: memoriam alicuius rei renovare, revocare (redintegrare)
    
  • to recall to mind a thing or person: memoriam alicuius rei repetere
    
  • to recall to mind a thing or person: in memoriam alicuius redire
    
  • to recall a thing to a person's mind: in memoriam alicuius redigere, reducere aliquid (not revocare)
    
  • to picture to oneself again: memoriam alicuius rei repraesentare (opp. memoriam alicuius rei deponere, abicere)
    
  • to retain the recollection of a thing: memoriam alicuius rei conservare, retinere
    
  • to show an affectionate regard for a person's memory: memoriam alicuius pie inviolateque servare
    
  • to retain a (most) pleasant impression of a person: gratam (gratissimam) alicuius memoriam retinere
    
  • nothing will ever make me forgetful of him: memoriam eius nulla umquam delebit (obscurabit) oblivio (Fam. 2. 1)
    
  • to immortalise one's name: memoriam nominis sui immortalitati tradere, mandare, commendare
    
  • within the memory of man: post hominum memoriam
    
  • in memory of..: memoriae causa, ad (not in) memoriam (Brut. 16. 62)
    
  • (ambiguous) tradition, history tells us: memoriae traditum est, memoriae (memoria) proditum est (without nobis)
    
  • to consult history: memoriam annalium or temporum replicare
    
  • to be well versed in Roman history: memoriam rerum gestarum (rerum Romanarum) tenere
    
  • to proclaim a general amnesty: omnem memoriam discordiarum oblivione sempiterna delere (Phil. 1. 1. 1)
    
  • (ambiguous) the present day: haec tempora, nostra haec aetas, memoria
    
  • (ambiguous) in our time; in our days: his temporibus, nostra (hac) aetate, nostra memoria, his (not nostris) diebus
    
  • (ambiguous) in our fathers' time: memoria patrum nostrorum
    
  • (ambiguous) to have a vivid recollection of a thing: recenti memoria tenere aliquid
    
  • (ambiguous) he had such an extraordinary memory that..: memoria tanta fuit, ut
    
  • (ambiguous) from memory; by heart: ex memoria (opp. de scripto)
    
  • (ambiguous) to keep in mind: memoria custodire
    
  • (ambiguous) vivid recollection: memoria et recordatio
    
  • (ambiguous) to show a thankful appreciation of a person's kindness: grata memoria aliquem prosequi
    
  • (ambiguous) the memory of this will never fade from my mind: numquam ex animo meo memoria illius rei discedet
    
  • (ambiguous) a thing has been vividly impressed on our[TR1] memory: aliquid in memoria nostra penitus insidet
    
  • (ambiguous) nothing will ever make me forgetful of him: semper memoria eius in (omnium) mentibus haerebit
    
  • (ambiguous) a thing escapes, vanishes from the memory: aliquid excidit e memoria, effluit, excidit ex animo
    
  • (ambiguous) the recollection of a thing has been entirely lost: memoria alicuius rei excidit, abiit, abolevit
    
  • (ambiguous) to be forgotten, pass into oblivion: memoria alicuius rei obscuratur, obliteratur, evanescit
    
  • (ambiguous) to borrow instances from history: exempla petere, repetere a rerum gestarum memoria or historiarum (annalium, rerum gestarum) monumentis
    
  • (ambiguous) examples taken from Roman (Greek) history: exempla a rerum Romanarum (Graecarum) memoria petita
    
  • (ambiguous) Roman history (as tradition): memoria rerum Romanarum
    
  • (ambiguous) tradition, history tells us: memoriae traditum est, memoriae (memoria) proditum est (without nobis)
    
  • (ambiguous) a twofold tradition prevails on this subject: duplex est memoria de aliqua re
    
  • (ambiguous) ancient history: rerum veterum memoria
    
  • (ambiguous) ancient history: memoria vetus (Or. 34. 120)
    
  • (ambiguous) ancient history: antiquitatis memoria
    
  • (ambiguous) modern history: recentioris aetatis memoria
    
  • (ambiguous) the history of our own times; contemporary history: memoria huius aetatis (horum temporum)
    
  • (ambiguous) the history of our own times; contemporary history: nostra memoria (Cael. 18. 43)
    
  • (ambiguous) universal history: omnis memoria, omnis memoria aetatum, temporum, civitatum or omnium rerum, gentium, temporum, saeculorum memoria
    
  • (ambiguous) historic times: historicorum fide contestata memoria
    
  • (ambiguous) to read a speech: de scripto orationem habere, dicere (opp. sine scripto, ex memoria)
    
• memoria in Ramminger, Johann (16 July 2016 (last accessed)), Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700‎^[3], pre-publication website, 2005-2016

Old Galician-Portuguese

Alternative forms

• memorea

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin memoria.

Noun

memoria f

1. memory

Descendants

• Fala: memoria
• Galician: memoria, memória
• Portuguese: memória

References

• Seoane, Ernesto Xosé González; Granja, María Álvarez de la; Agrelo, Ana Isabel Boullón (2006–2022), “memoria”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval [Dictionary of dictionaries of Medieval Galician] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega

Old Spanish

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin memoria.

Noun

memoria f (plural memorias)

1. memory
   • ca. 1230, Del Sacrificio de la Misa‎^[4]:

     Abrán, nuestro avuelo de ondrada memoria, quando de la fazienda tornava con victoria, […]

     Abraham, our grandfather of honourable memory, when he came back from the battle with victory

Descendants

• Ladino: memoria, מימורייה
• Spanish: memoria

References

• Ralph Steele Boggs et al. (1946), “memoria”, in Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, volume II, Chapel Hill, page 334

Portuguese

Noun

memoria f (plural memorias)

1. pre-reform spelling (used until 1943 in Brazil and 1911 in Portugal) of memória

Romanian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [meˈmo.ri.a]

Noun

memoria f

1. definite nominative/accusative singular of memorie

Spanish

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *(s)mer-der.?

Latin memor

Proto-Indo-European *-(i)yós

Proto-Italic *-ijos

Proto-Italic *-ios

Old Latin -ios

Latin -ius

Latin -ia

Latin memorialbor.

Old Spanish memoria

Spanish memoria

Inherited from Old Spanish memoria (“memory”), a learned borrowing from Latin memoria.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /meˈmoɾja/ [meˈmo.ɾja]

• Audio (Colombia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -oɾja
• Syllabification: me‧mo‧ria

Noun

memoria f (plural memorias)

1. (uncountable unless referring to that of multiple people) memory (the ability of the brain to record information)
2. (countable) memory (a specific thing that is remembered)

   Synonym: recuerdo

3. report, document

   Synonyms: informe, documento

4. (computing) memory (the part of a computer that stores variable executable code or data)
   • 2015 October 28, “Google tiene 3,8 millones de GB de nuestras fotos”, in CNN en Español‎^[5]:

     Necesitarías 3 millones 809.280 memorias flash de un gigabyte para almacenar todas esas fotos. […] Necesitarías cuando menos 238,080 iPhones S6 con 16 gigabytes de memoria para guardarlas.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 2021 July 21, Juan Garzon, “Los mejores celulares Android de 2021”, in CNN en Español‎^[6]:

     Los principales sacrificios para esto llegan a través de una memoria RAM inferior (6 GB vs. 8 GB), no se puede cargar inalámbricamente, no tiene carga inalámbrica reversible y no es resistente al agua.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Derived terms

• de memoria
• hacer memoria
• lápiz de memoria
• libro de memoria
• memorativo
• memoria de elefante
• memoria de pollo
• memoria histórica
• memoria USB
• memorión
• memorioso
• memorista
• memorístico
• memoroso
• recorrer la memoria
• reducir a la memoria
• refrescar la memoria
• renovar la memoria
• tarjeta de memoria
• tener en memoria
• traer a la memoria

Related terms

• desmemoria

See also

• (countable) recuerdo

Further reading

• “memoria”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025