* IPA(key): [ˈsɔftˌwɛɹ]

From _soft_ +‎ _-ware_, by contrast with _hardware_ (“the computer itself”). Coined 1953 by Paul Niquette; first used in print by John Tukey 1958.

Wikipedia SOFTWARE (_uncountable_) * (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 RELATED TERMS TRANSLATIONS

* ^ "Part 0. Introduction: The Software Age", _Softword: Provenance for the Word 'Software',_ 2006 by Paul Niquette, ISBN 1-58922-233-4 , adapted from article first published in 1995 in author’s magazine, _Sophisticated: The Magazine_, ISBN 1-58922-232-6 (archival links)

Borrowing from English.

SOFTWARE m (_invariable_) * (computing) software

Borrowing from English _software_.

SOFTWARE m (_usually uncountable_) * (Jersey, computing) software

Borrowing from English.

SOFTWARE m (_plural_ SOFTWARES) * (computing) software (encoded computer instructions)