Borgesian library

noun

A fictitious vast library containing all possible 410-page books of a certain format, including books resulting from random concatenation of letters, spaces and punctuation marks.

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Meanings

nounBorgesian library (plural Borgesian libraries)

plural Borgesian libraries

  1. A fictitious vast library containing all possible 410-page books of a certain format, including books resulting from random concatenation of letters, spaces and punctuation marks.

Origin

After Jorge Luis Borges, who wrote about such a library in his short story The Library of Babel (1941).

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Cite this entry
APA

Borgesian library. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Borgesian%20library

MLA

“Borgesian library.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Borgesian%20library. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Borgesian library,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Borgesian%20library.

Source: Borgesian library on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.