a library that is linked into your code at compile-time

A library linked with other modules when those modules are built. In IBM C/C++ Compilers, it has the file extension .lib. Contrast with dynamic link library.

A code resource designed to be linked into an application on the developer's machine, when the application is linked. See also dynamic library.

In computer science, a static library, also referred to as a statically-linked library, is a computer library in which links to external functions and variables are resolved at compile-time or at run-time by a linker or linking loader. Static libraries are either merged with other static libraries and object files during building/linking to form a single executable, or they may be loaded at run-time into the address space of the loaded executable at a static memory offset determined at compile-time/link-time.