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

Kim said the scope of customers who are interested in multi-year contracts is expanding beyond hyperscalers and server makers to those with mobile, automotive and network needs.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 29, 2026

In August, security researchers found a way to take control over a server running PHP by sending it a series of malicious requests.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 22, 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

Frontier AI labs and new-age cloud providers are seeing negative free cash flow, and it doesn’t help that data-center server prices are increasing due to rising memory prices, he said.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 21, 2026

Only, now it claimed François Fournier was currently in the server room, which didn’t make sense because he’d clocked out and left the building nearly three hours earlier.

From "City Spies" by James Ponti

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

Since late 2025, the company has committed to paying at least $417 billion to rent chips and servers.

From Barron's ● Oct. 28, 2026

They are at the heart of the AI boom, housing the advanced computer chips and servers needed to run services like ChatGPT and Claude.

From BBC ● Oct. 25, 2026

AI data centers often contain thousands of tightly arranged servers that require continuous cooling to operate reliably and avoid overheating.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 22, 2026

Sometimes, when the stand closes, the servers slip him a couple of tacos.

From "Enrique's Journey" by Sonia Nazario

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