app
Pluralapps
- 1A software program, typically a small one made to run on a smartphone or tablet.
The startup launched its first app on both major phone platforms.
Most messaging apps now offer encrypted calls.
UsageYou download or install an app; name its job in front or with for: a banking app, an app for tracking workouts.
Similarapplication, program
Note
A clipping of application that named computer programs well before it moved to the phone. Computing writers of 1999 speak of a graphics app, a spreadsheet app, and the Web browser as the killer app. By 2005 Popular Science is listing smartphone tools and promising that there's an app for it.
- 2A formal request to be admitted to a college or university.
She submitted her app to three universities before the deadline.
The admissions office reviews thousands of apps each fall.
UsageUsually college app, since a bare app reads as software; in anything sent to an admissions office, write application.
Similarapplication
Note
In Nicole Leigh Shepherd's Stealing Bases (2011), a teenager has to wear a dress to show off the marketing materials on her college app.
- 3A small first course or starter eaten before the main meal.
She picked a spicy app off the happy-hour menu.
We split a couple of apps before our entrees arrived.
UsageMostly in the plural, in menu talk: split a few apps. In careful writing, use appetizer.
Note
A different word that happens to share the spelling: this is a clipping of appetizer, not of application. Food writers switch between the two forms within a single passage. Robin Asbell's New Vegetarian (2009) sets vegetarian appetizers against "the other apps".
Less common meanings
- 4A single appearance by a player in a match or game.
The midfielder marked his hundredth app with a goal.
Injuries limited her to just five apps last season.
UsageUsually with a number, in player statistics: five apps last season.
Similarappearance
Note
A third, unrelated clipping, this time of appearance. It is a word for the record books: apps are counted, as in ten apps this season, and the word belongs to the vocabulary of player statistics and season tallies. Its overlap with the software sense is only a matter of spelling.
- 5A practical use or purpose to which something is put, as distinct from a software program.
Practice
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Origins
A shortening of "application."
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- App is a shortening of application. en.wiktionary.org
A shortening of "appetizer."
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- App is a shortening of appetizer. en.wiktionary.org
A shortening of "appearance."
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- App is a shortening of appearance. en.wiktionary.org