download
Americanverb (used with object)
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downloads,
present (3rd person singular)
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downloaded,
past participle, past
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downloading
present participle
noun
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downloads
plural
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software, data, etc., that has been downloaded.
the best free music downloads.
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the act or process of downloading.
verb
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to copy or transfer (data or a program) into the memory of one computer system from a larger one
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to broadcast specialist programmes, for such groups as doctors, outside normal broadcasting hours. They are often recorded on video tapes and viewed later Compare upload
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to delegate or assign (work, responsibilities, costs, etc) to a someone at a lower level of an organization; off-load
noun
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To transfer data or programs from a server or host computer to one's own computer or digital device.
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Compare upload
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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downloadsimple
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downloadssimple
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have downloadedperfect
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has downloadedperfect
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am downloadingprogressive
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are downloadingprogressive
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is downloadingprogressive
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have been downloadingperfect progressive
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has been downloadingperfect progressive
Past
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downloadedsimple
-
had downloadedperfect
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was downloadingprogressive
-
were downloadingprogressive
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had been downloadingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of download
Explanation
When you've got files on one computer that you need to transfer onto another, you'll need to download or copy the data onto a portable drive to move it. Back before the internet brought the world to our fingers, the word download was used mainly to describe the process of copying files or data from one computer to another. But these days, you can download or copy, just about anything from the internet — from music to movies to books. Another thing you can download, if you aren't careful, is a virus, so be wary before you go transferring all kinds of files to your computer.
Vocabulary lists containing download
Computer Science and Technology - Introductory
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Computer Science and Technology - Middle School
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Computer Science and Technology - High School
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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.
See Examples For:
Physical copies of the game will contain a code for a digital download for the game inside a box, rather than a disc.
From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2026
Riders can download the app and travel across L.A.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2026
Customers can either download the model to their own servers, or access it via Mistral's infrastructure, including in "our European sovereign region where data stays under EU jurisdiction to ensure data remains under their control".
From Barron's ● Oct. 6, 2026
On Saturday, Howard-Jones discovered that the United Nations had been targeted by OpenAI’s agents who had used hacking techniques in an attempt to download data from one of the organization’s statistical websites.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
Every time I turned my e-mail program on, I faced hundreds of messages from kids, students, former students, parents, and teachers stacked in vast queues; it took hours just to download the mail.
From "Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet Out of Idaho" by Jon Katz
The new model, called Muse Wonder, arrives as global downloads of the company’s personal-assistant agent have slowed.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2026
According to a Thursday report from Sensor Tower, Muse has accumulated over 3.4 million downloads across the U.S. and Canada since its Sept. 8 launch.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 26, 2026
It was designed for users without special tech skills and already has millions of downloads.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 23, 2026
The regulator said that while the company had followed all the correct procedures it had now "obtained the flight data recording downloads as well as other additional requirements" for further analysis.
From BBC ● Sep. 2, 2026
“This thingy counts every step, and then at midnight it downloads so we can check each other’s numbers. First one who goes over or under ten thousand loses.”
From "Goodbye Stranger" by Rebecca Stead
Bumble is one of the world's most downloaded dating apps, operating in a crowded market where growth has slowed.
From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2026
I downloaded the app and began testing twice daily as recommended.
From Slate ● Oct. 9, 2026
Rombach emphasised his company's focus on "open-weight" AI models, some of which can be downloaded by researchers and developers, "increases transparency, increases safety".
From Barron's ● Sep. 27, 2026
He pushed for the broad dissemination of open-source AI models, which can be downloaded freely and used at a low cost.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026
I downloaded all the titles she named, and she was right, those were the songs.
From "Auggie & Me" by R. J. Palacio
Jobseekers are being warned to be vigilant as scammers are targeting people on job listings websites to trick them into downloading bogus interview tools.
From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2026
Hundreds of thousands responded by downloading the app; by Monday, MapQuest had climbed to No. 1 among navigation apps in Apple’s U.S.
From Salon ● Sep. 2, 2026
The immediate risk is a “harvest now, decrypt later” approach by bad actors, who are downloading large sets of encrypted data they can’t crack now—but could unlock once quantum computing algorithms are good enough.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026
Holographic, or handwritten, wills are legal in about half of the states in the U.S, including Texas, but it’s not worth writing a will on the cheap or downloading one from the internet.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 24, 2026
In seconds, photos started downloading to my phone.
From "Turtles All the Way Down" by John Green
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
