softwareとは

意味・読み方・使い方

発音

• (Received 発音) IPA^(key): /ˈsɒftˌwɛə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsɔftˌwɛɹ/
• (cot–caught merger, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈsɑftˌwɛɹ/
• Homophone: softwear
• ハイフネーション: soft‧ware

名詞

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.

使用する際の注意点

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).

下位語

• See also Thesaurus:software
• embedded software

派生語

関連する語

派生した語

• → Amharic: ሶፍትዌር (softwer)

参考

参照

Further reading

• software on Wikipedia.

アナグラム

• forwaste, softwear