Okuzeka
History vocabulary · Social History

Collective memory

Meaning in history, with examples

nounCommon term

In history, collective memory means: Shared understandings and representations of the past maintained within a group.

In Turkish: kolektif bellek, toplumsal hafıza

How it is used

Collective memory is selective and can be contested; it is not identical to verified historical knowledge.

Example sentences

  1. School ceremonies helped shape collective memory of the uprising.

    Repeated public practices transmit a shared view of the past.

  2. The memorial debate exposed divisions within the city's collective memory.

    A community can remember the same past in competing ways.

Common collocations

  • shape collective memory
  • collective memory of war
  • oral historyThe collection and study of people's spoken memories of the past, usually through recorded interviews, and the recordings that result.
  • legacyThe lasting effects, ideas, institutions or problems that a person, period, empire or event leaves behind for later generations.

More terms: Social History

Practise with graded reading

Reading at the right level is the fastest way to make new words stick. Pick free English books by level: