download
Verbdownloads, downloading, downloaded
Noun pluraldownloads
Formsdownloads, downloading, downloaded
Pluraldownloads
- 1To transfer data to a local computer or device from a remote one over a network.
Click the link to download the report as a PDF.
Researchers downloaded gigabytes of satellite imagery from the agency's servers overnight.
UsageUsually download something from a site to or onto a device; for sending files the other way, say upload.
Oppositeupload
Note
Direction is everything in the computing verb. Data comes down to the local machine from a server, a site or another remote system, and upload names the opposite trip.
- 2A file or program that has been, or can be, copied onto your own device from a remote one over a network: the item itself, not the act of copying it.
The download sat unopened in his folder for weeks.
Free downloads of the album were available during the first week of release.
UsageOften a free download, or your downloads for the files saved on a device.
Oppositeupload
Note
The same phrase can point either way. A slow download is the act of transfer, and a corrupt download is the file. The verb or adjective beside it usually tells you which is meant.
- 3A transfer of a file to a local computer or device from a remote one through a network connection.
The download stalled at ninety percent and had to be restarted.
Large downloads can slow other traffic on a shared connection.
UsageOften with verbs of progress: a download starts, stalls, finishes or takes a few seconds.
Oppositeupload
- 4To install software on a device, especially by forcing a program to load onto it.
The IT department downloaded the monitoring tool onto every workstation without asking anyone.
Engineers download the new firmware to each robot on the assembly line.
UsageCareful writers say install software on a device; download only fetches it.
Similarinstall
Oppositeuninstall
Less common meanings
- 5To copy data to or from removable media such as a memory card, disc, or flash drive.
He downloaded the security footage to an external drive for the investigators.
Technicians download the flight logs from the recorder card after every test run.
UsageWhere it matters, copy or transfer files to a drive says the same without suggesting the internet.
Similarcopy
Note
No network is involved in this loose use, and direction stops mattering. Photos are downloaded to a CD-R, or footage to an external drive, and the word simply means copied.
- 6To shift a government service or asset, together with authority over it and the duty to run it, from a higher to a lower level of government.
The provincial government downloaded social housing onto municipalities during the budget cuts.
Mayors warned that the plan would download transit costs without providing new revenue.
UsageThe service is the object, and the lower level follows onto or to: download housing onto municipalities.
Similaroffload, devolve, transfer
Oppositeupload
Note
A Canadian political verb for passing duties down the ladder of government, for example from a province to its municipalities. In the late 1990s, for example, Ontario's government under Mike Harris downloaded the cost of income assistance and other social services onto the province's municipalities.
- 7To send data from a given computer to a remote one; a synonym of upload.
When you finish editing the slides on your laptop, please download them to the team's online folder so everyone can review them.
Dad downloaded the recipe to his blog last night.
UsageMost readers hear download as incoming, so for sending files out, write upload: upload the slides to the folder.
Similarupload
- 8To use a reduced charge of propellant, below the designed load, when loading a gun, especially a muzzle-loader.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
Formed from "down-" and "load," with the verb first appearing around 1962 in the Wichita Falls (Texas) Times and the noun around 1977 in Scientific American.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- The word is formed from down- and load. en.wiktionary.org
- The verb first appears around 1962 in the Wichita Falls (Texas) Times. en.wiktionary.org
- The noun first appears around 1977 in Scientific American. en.wiktionary.org