browser

American  

[brau-zer] / ˈbraʊ zər /

noun

• browsers
  plural

1. a person or thing that browses.

2. Digital Technology. a software program that allows the user to find and read encoded documents in a form suitable for display, especially such a program for use on the internet.

   You may need to pause internet security features and refresh the page in your web browser to play the embedded videos.

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browser British  

/ ˈbraʊzə /

noun

1. a person or animal that browses

2. computing a software package that enables a user to find and read hypertext files, esp on the Internet

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browser Scientific  

/ brou′zər /

1. A program that accesses and displays files and other data available on the Internet and other networks. Entering a website's URL in the address window of a browser will bring up that website in the browser's main window.

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browser Cultural  

1. See Web browser.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nonbrowser
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• browsers
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of browser

browse ( def. ) + -er ¹ ( def. ); browser def. 1 was first recorded in 1680–90, and browser def. 2 in 1980–85

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Explanation

A browser is a looker: either a program that lets you surf the Internet or a person in a store who just looks around without buying. This is a word that has to do with looking around, otherwise known as browsing. You probably use web browsers, which allow you to see websites on a computer. But you could also be a browser if you go to a store and just look around. Being a browser is a good way to kill time, but as soon as you make a purchase, you've gone from being a browser to being a customer.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

browser browsers

I’d open a new browser and start my questions from scratch, or throw entirely new ones at it.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 12, 2026

Amazon sued Perplexity in November 2025, accusing the startup of using its Comet browser agent to covertly make purchases on its marketplace, and has also moved to restrict agents from Google and OpenAI.

From Barron's ● Oct. 21, 2026

Note: The SecureDrop link will only work in a Tor browser.

From BBC ● Sep. 25, 2026

It got kicked out of the browser a few minutes later.

From Slate ● Sep. 23, 2026

I open a private browser and sneak the postcard onto my lap.

From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller

I wanted to resemble the relaxed browsers who paused over a melon because its scent had summoned them.

From Salon ● Aug. 4, 2026

Furthermore, many browsers make it easy to store and deploy payment credentials, eating into what had traditionally been a main selling point of PayPal’s service.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 28, 2026

Underage users have been dodging the restrictions by using accounts registered to older people, setting up fake accounts, or by logging into private browsers.

From Barron's ● Jun. 24, 2026

I tried different browsers, different WiFi networks and restarted it.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 7, 2026

As hugely important as Berners-Lee’s invention was, what really pop- ularized the Internet and the Web as tools of both connectivity and commerce was the creation of easy-to-install and easy-to-use commercial browsers.

From "The World Is Flat" by Thomas L. Friedman

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