software
English
Noun
(–)
(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 ).
Derived terms
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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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platform
English
Noun
(en noun )
A raised stage from which speeches are made and on which musical and other performances are made.
* , chapter=13
, title= The Mirror and the Lamp
, passage=“[…] They talk of you as if you were Croesus—and I expect the beggars sponge on you unconscionably.” And Vickers launched forth into a tirade very different from his platform utterances. He spoke with extreme contempt of the dense stupidity exhibited on all occasions by the working classes.}}
A place or an opportunity to express one’s opinion, a tribune.
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A kind of high shoe with an extra layer between the inner and outer soles.
(figurative)
* {{quote-news, year=2012, date=September 7, author=Phil McNulty, title=Moldova 0-5 England
, work=BBC Sport citation
, passage=Hodgson may actually feel England could have scored even more but this was the perfect first step on the road to Rio in 2014 and the ideal platform for the second qualifier against Ukraine at Wembley on Tuesday.}}
(automobiles) A set of components shared by several vehicle models.
(computing) A particular type of operating system or environment such as a database or other specific software, and/or a particular type of computer or microprocessor, used to describe a particular environment for running other software, or for defining a specific software or hardware environment for discussion purposes.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-01, volume=407, issue=8838, page=71, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= End of the peer show
, passage=Finance is seldom romantic. But the idea of peer-to-peer lending comes close. This is an industry that brings together individual savers and lenders on online platforms . Those that want to borrow are matched with those that want to lend.}}
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(politics) A political stance on a broad set of issues, which are called planks.
(travel) A raised structure from which passengers can enter or leave a train, metro etc.
*
, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5
, passage=We expressed our readiness, and in ten minutes were in the station wagon, rolling rapidly down the long drive, for it was then after nine.
* {{quote-magazine, title=Ideas coming down the track, date=2013-06-01, volume=407, issue=8838
, page=13 (Technology Quarterly), magazine=(The Economist)
citation
, passage=A “moving platform‘” scheme
(obsolete) A plan; a sketch; a model; a pattern.
- (Francis Bacon)
(nautical) A light deck, usually placed in a section of the hold or over the floor of the magazine.
A flat expanse of rock often as a result of wave erosion.
Derived terms
* platform balance
* platform bed
* platform car
* platformer
* platform game
* platforming
* platform rocker
* platform scale
* platform ticket
Verb
(en verb )
To furnish with or shape into a
* {{quote-book, 1885, Frances Elliot, The Diary of an Idle Woman in Sicily citation
, passage=
To place on a platform.
(obsolete) To form a plan of; to model; to lay out.
- Church discipline is platformed in the Bible. — Milton.
(politics) To include in a political platform
* {{quote-book, 1955, Amy Lowell, Complete Poetical Works citation
, passage=Among them I scarcely can plot out one truth / Plain enough to be platformed by some voting sleuth / And paraded before the precinct polling-booth. }}
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