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Synonyms

developer

American  
[dih-vel-uh-per] / dɪˈvɛl ə pər /

noun

  1. a person or thing that develops or innovates.

    a software developer.

  2. Photography. a reducing agent or solution for developing a film or the like.

  3. a person who invests in and develops the urban or suburban potentialities of real estate, especially by subdividing the land into home sites and then building houses and selling them.

  4. Shipbuilding. a person who lays out at full size the lines of a vessel and prepares templates from them.

developer British  
/ dɪˈvɛləpə /

noun

  1. a person or thing that develops something, esp a person who develops property

  2. photog a solution of a chemical reducing agent that converts the latent image recorded in the emulsion of a film or paper into a visible image

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of developer

First recorded in 1825–35; develop + -er 1

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

“We offer zero down payment!” the developer pledged.

From Slate • Apr. 20, 2026

Like Xu, the sanctioned developer of the Phnom Penh skyscraper, Chen was an émigré from China and a naturalized Cambodian citizen.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 20, 2026

ChatGPT developer OpenAI has already struck a multibillion-dollar agreement to buy computing capacity from Cerebras, according to The Wall Street Journal.

From Barron's • Apr. 17, 2026

The game design award went to Tonda Ros, the solo developer behind puzzle adventure Blue Prince.

From BBC • Apr. 17, 2026

A private developer wanted to build the new units on a twenty-two-acre site on Bacon Street in the middle-class section of Hayti.

From "The Best of Enemies" by Osha Gray Davidson

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.