software

See also: Software

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈsɔftˌwɛɹ]

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Etymology

From soft +‎ -ware, by contrast with hardware (“the computer itself”). Coined 1953 by Paul Niquette; first used in print by John Tukey 1958.

Noun

Wikipedia

software (uncountable)

1. (computing) Encoded computer instructions, usually modifiable (unless stored in some form of unalterable memory such as ROM). Compare hardware.
   • 1958, John W. Tukey, "The Teaching of Concrete Mathematics" in The American Mathematical Monthly, vol. 65, no. 1 (Jan. 1958), pp 1-9:

     The "software" comprising the carefully planned interpretive routines, compilers, and other aspects of automative programming are at least as important to the modern electronic calculator as its "hardware" of tubes, transistors, wires, tapes and the like.

   • 1995, Paul Niquette, Softword: Provenance for the Word ‘Software’:

     As originally conceived, the word "software" was merely an obvious way to distinguish a program from the computer itself. A program comprised sequences of changeable instructions each having the power to command the behavior of the permanently crafted machinery, the "hardware."

Usage notes

Software is a mass noun (some software, a piece of software). By non-native speakers it is sometimes erroneously treated as a countable noun (a software, some softwares).

Hyponyms

• See also Wikisaurus:software

Derived terms

Terms derived from "software"

application software kitchen table software software assurance

software design software engineering software state

system software -ware

Related terms

Terms etymologically related to "software"

adware bloatware firmware freeware

hardware malware schlockware shareware

spyware vaporware wetware

Translations

encoded computer instructions

• Afrikaans: sagteware, programmatuur
• Arabic: برمجيات pl (barmajiyāt), برامج الحاسب m pl (barāmij al-ḥāsib)
• Armenian: ծրագրային ապահովում (cragrayin apahovum)
• Bengali: সফটওয়্যার (sôphţowar)
• Catalan: programari (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 軟件 (zh), 软件 (zh) (ruǎnjiàn), (Taiwan) 軟體 (zh), 软体 (zh) (ruǎntǐ)

• Czech: software (cs) m
• Danish: software (da), programmel
• Dutch: software (nl) m, programmatuur (nl) m
• Esperanto: programaro
• Finnish: ohjelmisto (fi), tietokoneohjelma (fi), softa
• French: logiciel (fr) m
• German: Software (de) f
• Greek: λογισμικό (el) n (logismikó)
• Hebrew: תוכנה f
• Hungarian: szoftver (hu)
• Indonesian: piranti lunak
• Interlingua: software
• Irish: bogearraí m pl
• Italian: software (it) m
• Japanese: ソフトウェア (ja) (sofutowea), ソフト (sofuto)
• Korean: 소프트웨어 (ko) (sopeuteuweeo), 무른모 (mureunmo)

• Lithuanian: programinė įranga (lt) f
• Malay: perisian (ms)
• Maltese: softwer m
• Maori: pūmanawa, pūmanawa rorohiko
• Norwegian: programvare m, f
• Persian: نرم افزار (fa) (narmafzar)
• Polish: oprogramowanie (pl) n
• Portuguese: software (pt) m, programa (pt) m
• Romanian: software (ro) n
• Russian: программное обеспечение (ru) n (prográmmnoje obespečénije), софтвер n, m (sóftvɛr, softvɛ́r), ПО n (pɛ-ó), софт (ru) m (soft)
• Scottish Gaelic: bathar-bog m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic:

  Roman: programska oprema, napudbina, mekušje, mekovlje, mekotvorina, softver, programska potpora f, programska podrška f

• Sindhi: منطقگري (sd) f
• Slovak: softvér m
• Spanish: software (es) m, programa (es) m
• Swedish: mjukvara (sv) c
• Turkish: yazılım (tr)
• Vietnamese: phần mềm (vi)
• Welsh: meddalwedd (cy) f

See also

application assembly assembler bug code coding

compilation compiler debugging interpreter linking linker

open source patch programming script utilities warez

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Italian

Etymology

English

Noun

software m (invariable)

1. (computing) software

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Jèrriais

Etymology

From English software.

Noun

software m (usually uncountable)

1. (computing) software

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Portuguese

Noun

software m (plural softwares)

1. (computing) software (encoded computer instructions)