noun
Freq #6096
Meanings
-
1
noun
The programs and instructions that tell a computer what to do.
You need to install the right software to edit these photos.
Thesaurus
Word family
Derived forms
adwarebiosoftwarebloatwarefirmwarefreewarehardwareintersoftwaremalwaremicrosoftmicrosoftwareneurosoftwarenonsoftware
Related forms
applicationassemblerassemblybugcodecodingcompilationcompilercomputerdebuggingexecutablefirmware
Etymology
Computing sense from soft + -ware, by contrast with hardware (“the computer itself”). Coined by John Tukey in 1958. The earlier sense of software to mean tangible products with a soft texture may have fallen out of common usage before the computing sense was created.