widget

[wij-it]

noun

1. a small mechanical device, as a knob or switch, especially one whose name is not known or cannot be recalled; gadget.

   a row of widgets on the instrument panel.

2. something considered typical or representative, as of a manufacturer's products.

   the widgets coming off the assembly line.

3. Digital Technology.,  a module on a website, in an application, or in the interface of a device that allows users to access information or perform a function.

   I added a weather widget to my screen.

widget

/ ˈwɪdʒɪt /

noun

1. informal,  any small mechanism or device, the name of which is unknown or temporarily forgotten

2. a small device in a beer can which, when the can is opened, releases nitrogen gas into the beer, giving it a head

3. a small computer program that can be installed on and executed from the desktop of a personal computer

Word History and Origins

Origin of widget¹

First recorded in 1925–30; perhaps alteration of gadget

Word History and Origins

Origin of widget¹

C20: changed from _gadget

Example Sentences

As if health coverage is a widget the company has engineered rather than a lifeline it is cutting.

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In a factory, widgets travel down a conveyor belt, and workers tweak those widgets along the way.

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The Dodgers lost, the last domino in a cascade triggered by a front office that miscast its humans as widgets in a search for even the tiniest of edges.

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For the leaders of today’s cultural industries, films, TV series, albums, even books seem to be no more than widgets on an algorithmic assembly line, as fungible as yards of textile or gauges of steel.

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A future version of the Dataland website will include access to the Large Nature Model for educational and research purposes, and a widget will track in real time how much energy is being used.

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Related Words

• gizmo