computers

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of computer.

   The lab replaced its aging computers with faster machines last year.

   Several computers crashed at once when the power flickered.

   Note

   One spelling covers two very different crowds. Before the machines, computers were people employed to work out calculations, a use now archaic and historical. Today the plural almost always means the electronic devices. It is a regular plural that takes plural agreement (the computers are down). The same spelling also serves as the rare verb form, so context decides which one is meant.

2. 2
   verbnonstandard

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of computer. Rare and nonstandard.

   Note

   A verb form most writers will never need, because computer as a verb is nonstandard and rare. Where it does appear, it means to use a computer, to send something by computer, or to transfer material onto one. It can stand alone (she computers all evening) or take an object. In careful writing, "uses a computer" or "computerizes" says the same thing without raising eyebrows.

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