# cartridge
## English
### Alternative forms

* cartage

### Etymology

Corruption of earlier cartage, from French cartouche, from Italian cartoccio (“roll of paper”), from Medieval Latin carta (“paper”). Doublet of cartouche.

### Pronunciation

* (UK) IPA: /ˈkɑːtɹɪdʒ/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* (US) enPR: kärʹtrĭj, IPA: /ˈkɑɹtɹɪd͡ʒ/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)tɹɪdʒ

### Noun

cartridge (plural cartridges)
* (firearms) The package consisting of the bullet, primer, and casing containing gunpowder; a round of ammunition.
** 1907 January, Harold Bindloss, chapter 7, in The Dust of Conflict, 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: McLeod & Allen, →OCLC:Still, a dozen men with rifles, and cartridges to match, stayed behind when they filed through a white aldea lying silent amid the cane, and the Sin Verguenza swung into slightly quicker stride.
* (by extension) A prefabricated subassembly that can be easily installed in or removed from a larger mechanism or replaced with another interchangeable subassembly.
* (computing) A vessel which contains the ink or toner for a computer printer and can be easily replaced with another.
* (computing) Magnetic tape storage, used for storing (backup) copies of data.
** 1983, “Helpline”, in Sinclair User, number 21:The program generates a catalogue of the files on the cartridge selected by the user, reads the catalogue into memory and erases the cartridge copy, so that an up-to-date copy is always generated.
* (computing) A removable enclosure containing read-only memory devices, used for rapid loading of software onto a home computer or video game console.
** 1981, Communication Outlook, volume 3:We would like to see someone market a low-power, text-to-speech cartridge that would mate with the Epson and use its internal battery pack.
** 2002, Video Game Bible, 1985-2002, page 180:Nintendo made sure to loudly trumpet all of the advantages of the cartridge format, particularly the greatly reduced loading times and the sturdiness of the cartridges […]
** 2015 June 24, “Top 10 Chinese Knockoffs of Foreign Products” (00:01:54 from the start), in China Uncensored‎, spoken by himself (Chris Chappell), New Tang Dynasty Television, via New Tang Dynasty Television:Not as good, though, as the PolyStation. Looks like a first-generation PlayStation in a Nitendo 64 box. And even though that bit on top looks like it should take a disc, it actually uses something like a Super Nintendo cartridge.
* (obsolete) A small paper package, e.g. in an old book about making printer's type: After all the type has been cast: "The Boy will paper up each sort in a cartridge by itself".

#### Derived terms

* ball cartridge
* bite the cartridge
* blank-cartridge
* blank cartridge
* cartomizer
* cartridge base
* cartridge belt
* cartridge box
* cartridge brass
* cartridge case
* cartridge clip
* cartridge drive
* cartridge ejector
* cartridge extractor
* cartridge-filler
* cartridge font
* cartridge fuse
* cartridge holder
* cartridgeless
* cartridgelike
* cartridge paper
* cartridge pen
* cartridge player
* cartridge pleat
* cartridge remover
* cartridge seal
* cartridge-shot
* cartridge starter
* center-fire cartridge, centre-fire cartridge
* cheat cartridge
* disk cartridge
* DV cartridge
* font cartridge
* Hatton cartridge
* ignition cartridge
* ink cartridge
* magnetic cartridge
* memory cartridge
* microcartridge
* multicartridge
* paper cartridge
* phono cartridge
* removable cartridge
* rim-fire cartridge
* shot cartridge
* tape cartridge
* Travan cartridge
* wildcat cartridge
* wire cartridge

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.