word processing

American  

Or word-processing

noun

1. writing, editing, and production of documents, as letters, reports, and books, through the use of a computer program or a complete computer system designed to facilitate rapid and efficient manipulation of text. WP

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word processing British  

noun

1. the composition of documents using a computer system to input, edit, store, and print them

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Etymology

Origin of word processing

First recorded in 1970–75

Example Sentences

"We sometimes overvalue the role of proprietary software in our organisations," Mr Maisto says, pointing out that for key services like word processing and email, open-source solutions work just fine.

From BBC • Aug. 17, 2025

For example, it is well established how much energy a computer with word processing software uses per hour.

From Science Daily • Apr. 2, 2024

At its heart, says Australian technologist David Gerard, ChatGPT is “a stupendously scaled-up autocomplete,” like a word processing program predicting the end of a word or sentence you’ve started typing.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 13, 2023

The platform will support its Pages word processing, Numbers spreadsheet and Keynote slide deck apps, as well as iMovie and GarageBand for video and music production.

From Seattle Times • Apr. 24, 2023

For example, a new word processing program, no matter how good, would be dead on arrival unless it could read all the files people had created with the old, dominant word processing software.

From The Public Domain Enclosing the Commons of the Mind by Boyle, James

Related Words

• data processing