journal

SayJUR-nuhlUS/ˈd͡ʒɝnəl/UK/ˈd͡ʒɜːnəl/

Pluraljournals, journaux

Verbjournals

11 meanings of journal

Practice

1
magazinenouncountable
A magazine or newspaper that covers a particular subject or field.
He subscribes to a trade journal for the construction industry.
Her research finally appeared in a respected scientific journal.
UsageUsually for academic or professional publications: a medical journal, a trade journal; for general reading, people say magazine.
Similarperiodical, magazine, publication
2
diarynouncountable
A daily record of events kept by a person, an organization, or a ship's crew.
The captain's journal logged the vessel's position and the crew's daily duties.
Each evening she filled a page of her journal with the day's small victories.
UsageThe usual verbs: keep a journal, write in your journal. A travel journal records a trip.
Similardiary, log, logbook, record
3
keep a diaryverbintransitive
To keep a personal diary, recording one's thoughts, feelings, and experiences in it regularly, often as a practice of reflection.
Many therapists suggest that patients journal for ten minutes each morning.
She has journaled almost every day since college, filling a notebook a month.
UsageOften journal about something: journal about your day. Journaling also names the habit: a journaling practice.
Note
With an object it can stay personal (journal your thoughts), but in record-keeping it means recording something for the record. The inflected forms split by spelling tradition: American English writes journaling and journaled with one l, British English journalling and journalled with two.
4
decorate pagesverbtransitive or intransitive
To create a decorative personal record by combining writing, photos, and mementos on a page.
On quiet evenings they journal with photos, ribbons, and handwritten notes.
She journaled the entire summer, filling pages with pressed flowers and ticket stubs.
Similarscrapbook
5
axle partnouncountable
The part of a shaft or axle that rests in and turns within a bearing.
Friction heated the journal where it pressed against the worn bearing.
Engineers measured the journal to confirm it still fit the bearing snugly.
Note
A shaft's or axle's journal may have nothing to do with diaries. Its origin is uncertain but apparently Scots, perhaps from chirnel, a form of kernel in its old sense of a lump in the flesh, named for a resemblance in shape. If so, it is a separate word that merely shares a spelling with the daily record.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
The mechanical noun has an uncertain origin, apparently Scots. en.wiktionary.org
It may derive from chirnel, from kernel meaning a lump in the flesh, through resemblance in shape. en.wiktionary.org
Under that proposed derivation, the mechanical noun has a separate origin from journal meaning a daily record. en.wiktionary.org

Less common meanings

6
record dataverbtransitive
To enter something in a record or log so that it is kept for later reference.
The system journals each transaction to a secure log.
Many file systems journal pending changes before they write them to disk, so a crash leaves nothing half done.
Similarlog, record
7
recovery lognouncountable
A time-ordered record of changes to a database or computer system, used to recover after a failure or restore an earlier state.
After the outage, administrators replayed the journal to bring the database back to its last good state.
Each write to the database is appended to the journal before it is committed.
Similarlog
Note
Recovery is the purpose of this kind of record. After a crash, software may replay recorded changes on the existing database or file system without restoring a backup. For recovery after data loss, journal entries may instead be replayed onto a restored backup. In this sense, journal and log often mean the same thing.
8
bookkeepingnouncountable
In bookkeeping, the book or record in which transactions are first entered in the order they happen, before being posted to the ledger.
The bookkeeper recorded each receipt in the journal before closing the month.
Auditors traced every payment back to an entry in the journal.
Note
Bookkeeping's book of first entry. Payments and receipts go into the journal in date order as they happen, and only afterward are they posted to the ledger accounts. The two are worth keeping apart: the journal answers 'what happened, and when?', and the ledger answers 'where does each account stand?' Entries are made in a journal and posted to a ledger.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
The journal is bookkeeping's book of first or original entry. openstax.org
Transactions are recorded chronologically in journals before being posted to ledger accounts. en.wikipedia.org
The ledger organizes information by account and shows account balances. openstax.org
9
adjectiveobsolete
Occurring each day; daily.
Note
The meaning most of the other senses grow from: Anglo-Norman jurnal, "daily," and behind it Latin diurnalis, which also gave English diurnal. Spenser still writes of horses resting from their journal labors in The Faerie Queene (1590), but the adjective is now obsolete and takes no comparative. The "day" idea lives on in the diary or daybook.
10
verb
To fit a shaft or axle into a journal bearing so that it can turn.
11
noun
A measure of land equal to the area one worker can cultivate in a single day.
This estate consists of 33 hectares, 12 of which (i. e., about 43 journaux) are devoted to the vine.
1899, Charles Cocks, Bordeaux and Its Wines Classed by Order of Merit

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of journal apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origins

Meanings 1–4, 6–9

Latin diurnus ("of the day") gave diurnālis, which became Old French jornel ("day") and then Anglo-Norman jurnal ("daily"), the source of Middle English journal. It is a doublet of diurnal.

Meaning 5

No one knows where this comes from, though it seems to be Scots. One guess is chirnel, from English kernel ("lump in the flesh"), because of the similar shape.