Archive vs. Dossier

Archivenoun

A place for storing earlier, and often historical, material. An archive usually contains documents (letters, records, newspapers, etc.) or other types of media kept for historical interest.

Dossiernoun

A collection of papers and/or other sources, containing detailed information about a particular person or subject, together with a synopsis of their content.

Archivenoun

The material so kept, considered as a whole (compare archives).

‘His archive of Old High German texts is the most extensive in Britain.’;

Dossiernoun

A bundle containing the papers in reference to some matter.

Archiveverb

To put into an archive.

‘I was planning on archiving the documents from 2001.’;

Dossiernoun

a collection of papers containing detailed information about a particular person or subject (usually a person's record)

Archivenoun

The place in which public records or historic documents are kept.

‘Our words . . . . become records in God's court, and are laid up in his archives as witnesses.’;

Dossiernoun

a collection of documents about a particular person, event, or subject

‘a dossier of complaints’; ‘we have a dossier on him’;

Archivenoun

Public records or documents preserved as evidence of facts; as, the archives of a country or family.

‘Some rotten archive, rummaged out of some seldom explored press.’;

Archivenoun

a depository containing historical records and documents

Archiveverb

put into an archive

Archive

An archive is an accumulation of historical records – in any media – or the physical facility in which they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or organization's lifetime, and are kept to show the function of that person or organization.