Audio Help [doun-lohd] Pronunciation Key | to transfer (software, data, character sets, etc.) from a distant to a nearby computer, from a larger to a smaller computer, or from a computer to a peripheral device. |
| Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006. |
download
To learn more about download visit Britannica.com
| © 2008 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. |
| down·load
Audio Help (doun'lōd') Pronunciation Key
tr.v. down·load·ed, down·load·ing, down·loads
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
| download | |
verb | |
| transfer a file or program from a central computer to a smaller computer or to a computer at a remote location [ant: upload] |
| WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University. |
| download
Audio Help (doun'lōd') Pronunciation Key
To transfer data or programs from a server or host computer to one's own computer or digital device. Compare upload. |
| The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
download jargon
To transfer data from one computer to another. Downloading usually refers to transfer from a larger "host" system (especially a server or mainframe) to a smaller "client" system, especially a microcomputer or specialised peripheral, and "upload" usually means from small to large.
Others hold that, technically, download means "receive" and upload means "send", irrespective of the size of the systems involved.
Note that in communications between ground and space, space-to-earth transmission is always "down" and the reverse "up", regardless of size. So far the in-space machines have invariably been smaller; thus the upload/download distinction has been reversed from its usual sense.
[The Jargon File]
(2003-11-04)
| The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2007 Denis Howe |
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