software

See also: Software

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈsɒf(t)ˌwɛə/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈsɔf(t)ˌweː/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsɔftˌwɛɹ/
• (cot–caught merger, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈsɑftˌwɛɹ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Homophone: softwear
• Hyphenation: soft‧ware

Noun

software (uncountable)

1. (computing) Encoded computer instructions, usually modifiable (unless stored in some form of unalterable memory such as ROM).
   • 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."

   Hyponyms: application software, data-oriented software, kitchen table software, on-premises software, malware, schlockware, shareware, shovelware, spyware, system software

2. (military) The human beings involved in warfare, as opposed to hardware such as weapons and vehicles.
   • 1989, Christopher Layton, A Step Beyond Fear: Building a European Security Community:

     The Americans have devoted their attention to the hardware of disarmament: Europeans can make a special contribution to the 'software' or human content of detente.

   • 1991, New York Magazine (volume 24, number 5, page 33)

     […] preview of horrific images to come, as the hardware stage of the war yields to the software — or human — stage.

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 Thesaurus:software
• embedded software

Derived terms

• adware
• bloatware
• firmware
• freeware
• hardware
• malware
• schlockware
• shareware
• spyware
• -ware
• wetware

 

Related terms

• firmware
• hardware
• software assurance
• software crisis
• software engineering
• software state
• vaporware

 

Descendants

• → Amharic: ሶፍትዌር (softəwer)

Translations

encoded computer instructions

• Afrikaans: sagteware, programmatuur (af)
• Albanian: softuer m, softver m
• Amharic: ሶፍትዌር (softəwer)
• Arabic: بَرْمَجِيَات‎ pl (barmajiyāt), بَرَامِج الْحَاسِب‎ m pl (barāmij al-ḥāsib)
• Armenian: ծրագրային ապահովում (cragrayin apahovum), ծրագրակազմ (cragrakazm), ծրագրաշար (hy) (cragrašar)
• Assyrian Neo-Aramaic: ܬܲܚܪܸܙܬܵܐ‎ f (tāḳrizta)
• Azerbaijani: proqram təminatı pl, PT pl
• Belarusian: прагра́мнае забеспячэ́нне n (prahrámnaje zabjespjačénnje), ПЗ n (PZ)
• Bengali: সফটওয়্যার (bn) (śôphṭôẇêr)
• Bulgarian: со́фтуер (bg) m (sóftuer), програ́мно осигуря́ване n (prográmno osigurjávane)
• Burmese: ဆော့ဖ်ဝဲလ် (hcauhp.wail)
• Catalan: programari (ca) m
• Chinese:

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

• Czech: software (cs) m, programové vybavení
• Danish: software (da), programmel
• Dutch: software (nl) m, programmatuur (nl) m
• Esperanto: programaro
• Estonian: tarkvara
• Finnish: ohjelmisto (fi), tietokoneohjelma (fi), softa
• French: logiciel (fr) m
• Galician: soporte lóxico (gl) m
• Georgian: პროგრამული უზრუნველყოფა (ṗrogramuli uzrunvelq̇opa), კომპიუტერული პროგრამა (ḳomṗiuṭeruli ṗrograma), პროგრამა (ṗrograma)
• German: Software (de) f
• Greek: λογισμικό (el) n (logismikó)
• Hebrew: תוכנה \ תׇּכְנָה‎ f (tokhná)
• Hindi: सॉफ़्टवेयर m (sŏfṭaveyar), क्रमानुदेश m (kramānudeś)
• Hungarian: szoftver (hu)
• Icelandic: hugbúnaður m
• Ido: softwaro (io), programaro
• Indonesian: perangkat lunak (id), peranti lunak (id)
• Interlingua: software, programmatura
• Irish: bogearraí m pl
• Italian: software (it) m, programma (it) m, supporto logico m
• Japanese: ソフトウェア (ja) (sofutowea), ソフト (ja) (sofuto)
• Javanese: ꦥꦶꦫꦤ꧀ꦠꦶ ꦲꦭꦸꦱ꧀ (piranti halus)
• Kazakh: бағдарламалық жасақтама (kk) (bağdarlamalyq jasaqtama), бағдарлама жасақтамасы (bağdarlama jasaqtamasy)
• Khmer: ផ្នែកទន់ (phnaek tŭən), សូហ្វវែរ (soufvae)
• Korean: 소프트웨어 (ko) (sopeuteuweeo), 무른모 (mureunmo)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: nermalav (ku) f

• Lao: ໂລຊີຊີແອນ (lō sī sī ʼǣn), ຊອບແວ (sǭp wǣ)
• Latin: programmatura f
• Latvian: programmatūra f
• Lithuanian: programinė įranga (lt) f
• Lombard: prugramadura ?
• Macedonian: софтвер m (softver), програмска опрема f (programska oprema)
• Malay: perisian (ms)
• Maltese: softwer m
• Maori: pūmanawa, pūmanawa rorohiko
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: програм хангамж (program xangamž)

• Northern Sotho: softewere
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: programvare (no) m or f

• Persian: نرم افزار‎ (fa) (narm afzâr), نرم‌افزار‎ (fa) (narm-afzâr)
• Polish: oprogramowanie (pl) n
• Portuguese: software (pt) m, programa (pt) m
• Romanian: software (ro) n, programe de computer n, soft (ro) n
• Russian: програ́ммное обеспече́ние (ru) n (prográmmnoje obespečénije), софтве́р (ru) m (softvɛ́r), со́фтвер (ru) m (sóftvɛr), ПО (ru) n (PO), софт (ru) m (soft)
• Scottish Gaelic: bathar-bog m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: програмска о̏према f, напудбина f, мекушје n, мековље n, мекотворина f, со̏фтве̄р m, програмска по̏тпора f, програмска по̀дршка f

  Roman: programska ȍprema f, napudbina f, mekušje n, mekovlje n, mekotvorina f, sȍftvēr (sh) m, programska pȍtpora f, programska pòdrška f

• Sicilian: prugramma m, software m
• Sindhi: منطقگري‎ (sd) f
• Sinhalese: පරිගණක මෘදුකාංග (parigaṇaka mr̥dukāṁga)
• Slovak: softvér (sk) m
• Slovene: programska oprema f, programje n
• Spanish: software (es) m, programa (es) m, soporte lógico m
• Swahili: maunzi laini
• Swedish: mjukvara (sv) c, programvara (sv) c
• Tagalog: software
• Tajik: нармафзор (tg) (narmafzor)
• Thai: ซอฟต์แวร์ (th) (sɔ́ɔp-wɛɛ)
• Turkish: yazılım (tr)
• Turkmen: programma üpjünçiligi
• Ukrainian: програ́мне забезпе́чення n (prohrámne zabezpéčennja), ПЗ n (PZ)
• Urdu: سافٹویئر‎ ? (sāfṭaveyar), سوفٹویئر‎ ? (sofṭaveyar)
• Uyghur: يۇمشاق دېتال‎ (yumshaq dëtal)
• Uzbek: dasturiy ta'minot
• Vietnamese: phần mềm (vi), phần ứng dụng, nhu liệu (vi) (dated)
• Welsh: meddalwedd (cy) f
• Yiddish: ווייכוואַרג‎ n (veykhvarg), פּראָגראַמוואַרג‎ ? (programvarg)

See also

• application
• assembler
• assembly
• bug
• code
• coding
• compilation
• compiler
• debugging
• interpreter
• linker
• linking
• open source
• patch
• programming
• script
• utilities
• warez

 

Further reading

• software on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• forwaste, softwear

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Czech

Etymology

Borrowed from English software.

Noun

software m

1. (computing) software

   Synonyms: programové vybavení, (rare) programové prostředky

Declension

Declension

	singular	plural
nominative	software	softwary
genitive	softwaru	softwarů
dative	softwaru	softwarům
accusative	software	softwary
vocative	software	softwary
locative	softwaru	softwarech
instrumental	softwarem	softwary

Derived terms

• reklamní software
• softwarový
• svobodný software
• škodlivý software
• špehovací software
• špionážní software
• vyděračský software

 

See also

• hardware

Further reading

• software on the Czech Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^cs

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Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English software.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɔft.ʋɛr/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: soft‧ware

Noun

software m (uncountable)

1. software (encoded computer instructions)

   Synonym: programmatuur

Derived terms

• gijzelsoftware

Related terms

• hardware

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French

Noun

software m (plural softwares)

1. (archaic) software

   Synonym: logiciel

Further reading

• “software”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

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Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from English software.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɔf.twɛr/, /ˈsɔf.twer/, /ˈsɔf.twɛ.ar/
• Rhymes: -ɔftwɛr, -ɔftwer, -ɔftwɛar

Noun

software m (invariable)

1. (computing) software (encoded computer instructions)

Related terms

• hardware

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Norman

Etymology

Borrowed from English software.

Noun

software m (uncountable)

1. (Jersey, computing) software (encoded computer instructions)

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Portuguese

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English software.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈsɔft.wɛʁ/, /ˈsɔf.t͡ʃi.wɛʁ/

Noun

software m (plural softwares)

1. (computing) software (encoded computer instructions)
2. (computing) a piece of software; program

Derived terms

• engenharia de software
• engenheiro de software
• (diminutive) softwarezinho

 

Related terms

• hardware
• middleware

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Romanian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English software.

Noun

software n (plural (rare) software-uri)

1. (computing) software (encoded computer instructions)

Declension

Declension of software

	singular		plural
	indefinite articulation	definite articulation	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(un) software	software-ul	(niște) software-uri	software-urile
genitive/dative	(unui) software	software-ului	(unor) software-uri	software-urilor
vocative	software-ule		software-urilor

Synonyms

• soft

Related terms

• hardware

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Spanish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English software.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsoftweɾ/ [ˈsoft̪.weɾ], /ˈsofweɾ/ [ˈsof.weɾ]
• Rhymes: -oftweɾ, -ofweɾ

Noun

software m (plural softwares)

1. (computing) software (encoded computer instructions)

   Synonym: programa

Usage notes

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

Derived terms

Expressions

• software dañino
• software de extorsión
• software espía
• software libre
• software malicioso
• software publicitario

 

See also

• hardware

Further reading

• “software”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014