server

American  

[sur-ver] / ˈsɜr vər /

noun

• servers
  plural

1. a person who serves.

2. a person who waits on tables; a waiter or waitress.

3. something that serves or is used in serving, as a salver.

4. a broad fork, spoon, or spatula for dishing out and serving individual portions of food, as vegetables, cake, or pie.

5. Also called altar server. Ecclesiastical. an attendant on the priest at Mass, who arranges the altar, makes the responses, etc.

6. (in tennis, badminton, handball, etc.) the player who puts the ball or shuttlecock in play.

7. Computers. a computer that makes services, as access to data files, programs, and peripheral devices, available to workstations on a network.

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server British  

/ ˈsɜːvə /

noun

1. a person who serves

2. RC Church a person who acts as acolyte or assists the priest at Mass

3. something that is used in serving food and drink

4. the player who serves in racket games

5. computing a computer or program that supplies data or resources to other machines on a network

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server Scientific  

/ sûr′vər /

1. A computer that manages centralized data storage or network communications resources. A server provides and organizes access to these resources for other computers linked to it.

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server Cultural  

1. Computer or software that performs administration or coordination functions within a network.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• servers
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of server

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English; serve + -er ¹ ( def. )

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Explanation

You can refer to the person who delivers your food in a restaurant as a server. Be sure to leave your server a generous tip! The term server has become a very common synonym for "waiter" or "waitress." It's preferable to talk about the friendly server who takes your order, since the word isn't specific to their gender but works for anyone who serves food. Another meaning of server is the computer hardware in a network of linked computers that allows those devices to work properly.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

server servers

But the earnings also made investors call into question the company’s ability to capitalize appropriately on a wave of demand for server CPUs — something that had previously helped drive its valuation higher.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 30, 2026

But server CPU demand isn’t enough on its own to support Intel through near-term challenges, Hiken said, namely the ongoing weakness in the PC market.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 29, 2026

It's a programming language which runs on a web server, behind the scenes of a website, and effectively lets you see the sites you visit.

From BBC ● Oct. 22, 2026

They reckon that Montage won’t be hurt by the memory cycle and it is a proxy for server CPU demand.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 21, 2026

You’re in a restaurant, and the server comes to the table to recite the specials of the day.

From "Silent To The Bone" by E.L. Konigsburg

Demand for Intel’s central processing units for data-center servers has surged this year as agentic artificial intelligence has taken off.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 29, 2026

"Strong demand momentum for servers led to higher market prices across all applications."

From Barron's ● Oct. 29, 2026

But two critical flaws were found with the system that led to the emergency response, with national cyber-security authorities urging IT teams to download a security fix urgently or take websites and servers offline.

From BBC ● Oct. 23, 2026

PHP is a programming language, created more than 30 years ago, that at one point was nearly everywhere on the Web to pull data from back-end servers and build dynamic webpages.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 22, 2026

Mrs. García pushed through the crowd and pulled me away from the mess, while one of the servers dragged a dirty mop across it.

From "When I Was Puerto Rican" by Esmeralda Santiago

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Related Words

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