Standard Lemma guide

computing

noun · verb · 6 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

/kəmˈpjuːtɪŋ/
US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
CMU ARPABET: K AH0 M P Y UW1 T IH0 NG Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

noun

Meaning 1

The process or act of calculation.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: literally, uncountable, usually

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

noun

Meaning 2

The use of a computer or computers.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: uncountable, usually

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

noun

Meaning 3

The study of computers and computer programming.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: uncountable, usually

Examples

This course will cover several major fields of computing.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

verb

Meaning 4

present participle and gerund of compute

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: form-of, gerund, participle, present

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

noun

Meaning 5

the procedure of calculating; determining something by mathematical or logical methods

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: calculation, computation

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: procedure, process

Narrower terms: transposition, number crunching, mathematical process, mathematical operation, operation, recalculation

noun

Meaning 6

the branch of engineering science that studies (with the aid of computers) computable processes and structures

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: computer science

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: engineering, engineering science, applied science, technology

Narrower terms: object, artificial intelligence, AI

History

Etymology

By surface analysis, compute + -ing.

Across languages

Translations

47 source translations are retained for this English entry.

Chinese Mandarin: 计算机应用 — action of using a computer
Dutch: computeren — action of using a computer
Dutch: computergebruik — action of using a computer
Esperanto: komputado — action of using a computer
Finnish: tietokoneen käyttö — action of using a computer
Finnish: tietojenkäsittely — action of using a computer
French: utilisation d'un ordinateur — action of using a computer
German: EDV — action of using a computer
Greek: υπολογίζοντας (ypologízontas) — action of using a computer
Hebrew: מִחְשׁוּב (mikhshúv) — action of using a computer
Indonesian: komputasi — action of using a computer
Italian: utilizzo del computer — action of using a computer
Japanese: コンピューティング — action of using a computer
Portuguese: computação — action of using a computer
Serbo-Croatian: uporaba računala — action of using a computer
Spanish: computación — action of using a computer
Arabic: حَوْسَبَة (ḥawsaba) — the study, field of computers and computer programming
Catalan: computació — the study, field of computers and computer programming
Catalan: informàtica — the study, field of computers and computer programming
Chinese Mandarin: 计算机编程 (jìsuànjī biānchéng) — the study, field of computers and computer programming
Dutch: informatica — the study, field of computers and computer programming
Finnish: tietojenkäsittelytiede — the study, field of computers and computer programming
French: informatique — the study, field of computers and computer programming
Galician: informática — the study, field of computers and computer programming
German: Informatik — the study, field of computers and computer programming
German: Computerei — the study, field of computers and computer programming
Greek: πληροφορική (pliroforikí) — the study, field of computers and computer programming
Hindi: संगणिकी (saṅgṇikī) — the study, field of computers and computer programming
Hungarian: számítástechnika — the study, field of computers and computer programming
Indonesian: komputasi — the study, field of computers and computer programming
Italian: informatica — the study, field of computers and computer programming
Japanese: 計算機科学 (keisanki-kagaku) — the study, field of computers and computer programming
Khmer: កុំព្យូទ័រវិទ្យា (kompyuutoa vityie) — the study, field of computers and computer programming
Khmer: គណិតូបករណ៍វិទ្យា (kak net tob kor vit tyea) — the study, field of computers and computer programming
Macedonian: информатика (informatika) — the study, field of computers and computer programming
Norwegian: informatikk — the study, field of computers and computer programming
Persian: انفورماتیک (anformâtik) — the study, field of computers and computer programming
Polish: informatyka — the study, field of computers and computer programming
Portuguese: informática — the study, field of computers and computer programming
Portuguese: computação — the study, field of computers and computer programming
Romanian: informatică — the study, field of computers and computer programming
Russian: информа́тика (informátika) — the study, field of computers and computer programming
Sindhi: ڳڻپيوڀياس (ganpyubhiyaas) — the study, field of computers and computer programming
Spanish: informática — the study, field of computers and computer programming
Spanish: computación — the study, field of computers and computer programming
Swahili: utarakilishi — the study, field of computers and computer programming
Tamil: கணிமை (kaṇimai) — the study, field of computers and computer programming

Word forms

Inflections and variants

computings — plural

Word family

Derived and related words

Derived: computing language, noncomputing, spatial computing

Related: computable, computation, computerize, on-line, online, off-line, real-time, stovepiped, machine readable, computer readable, open-source, allocation, storage allocation, data encryption, desktop publishing, access, memory access, accumulator, accumulator register, background, desktop, screen background, backup, computer backup, buffer, buffer storage, buffer store, bulletin board system, bulletin board, electronic bulletin board, bbs, cache, memory cache, central processing unit, CPU, C.P.U., central processor, processor, mainframe, computer, computing machine, computing device, data processor, electronic computer, information processing system, computer circuit, computer network, control key, command key, core, magnetic core, counter, cursor, pointer, dedicated file server, dialog box, panel, DIP switch, dual inline package switch, disk controller, disk drive, disc drive, hard drive, Winchester drive, display adapter, display adaptor, dongle, drive, erasable programmable read-only memory, EPROM, file server, firewall, foreground, hardware, computer hardware, index register, interface, port, light pen, electronic stylus, magnetic core memory, core memory, magnetic disk, magnetic disc, disk, disc, node, client, guest, non-dedicated file server, peripheral, computer peripheral, peripheral device, pixel, pel, picture element, printer, RAM disk, read-only memory, ROM, read-only storage, fixed storage, read/write head, head, register, rotary actuator, positioner, router, screen saver, security system, server, host, shift register, track, data track, virtual memory, virtual storage, window, computer architecture, architecture, complex instruction set computing, complex instruction set computer, CISC, reduced instruction set computing, reduced instruction set computer, RISC, nonsolid color, nonsolid colour, dithered color, dithered colour, execution speed, bits per inch, bpi, interoperability, emulation, terminal emulation, simulation, computer simulation, descriptor, information theory, logic, ontology, video, electronic mail, e-mail, email, prompt, command prompt, filename, file name, computer filename, computer file name, code, computer code, argument, parameter, address, computer address, reference, American Standard Code for Information Interchange, ASCII, ASCII character set, firmware, microcode, core dump, dump, soft copy, hard copy, directory, subdirectory, menu, computer menu, hierarchical menu, cascading menu, submenu, computer file, backup file, binary file, master file, main file, disk file, transaction file, detail file, input file, input data, output file, read-only file, text file, document, software, software program, computer software, software system, software package, package, operating system, OS, program, programme, computer program, computer programme, disambiguator, job, compiler, compiling program, driver, device driver, editor program, editor, user interface, interpreter, interpretive program, text editor, utility program, utility, service program, instruction, command, statement, program line, electronic database, on-line database, computer database, electronic information service, high-level formatting, low-level formatting, initialization, initialisation, GIGO, protocol, communications protocol, file transfer protocol, FTP, standard generalized markup language, SGML, font cartridge, cartridge font, screen font, raster font, domain name, programming language, programing language, object-oriented programming language, object-oriented programing language, icon, title bar, packet, error, computer error, hardware error, disk error, software error, programming error, semantic error, run-time error, runtime error, syntax error, algorithm error, seek, crash, head crash, disk pack, disc pack, field, bit field, disk space, disc space, disk overhead, overhead, power user, programmer, computer programmer, coder, software engineer, resolution, data processing, execution, instruction execution, fragmentation, iteration, looping, loop, operation, retrieval, storage, baud, baud rate, megaflop, MFLOP, million floating point operations per second, teraflop, trillion floating point operations per second, MIPS, million instructions per second, parity bit, parity, check bit, block, bad block, partition, capacity, formatted capacity, unformatted capacity, time sharing, access time, run-time, seek time, track-to-track seek time, bits per second, bps, rotational latency, latency, command processing overhead time, command processing overhead, command overhead, real time, rasterize, scroll, iterate, clear, google, mapquest, ping, write, save, overwrite, netmail, spam, network, input, concatenate, cascade, cybernate, computerise, load, import, export, spool, emulate

Semantic map

Other relationships

Hypernyms: procedure, process, engineering, engineering science, applied science, technology

Hyponyms: advanced computing, affective computing, biocomputing, burst computing, cloud computing, dew computing, distributed computing, edge computing, fog computing, geocomputing, grid computing, home computing, memcomputing, mesh computing, microcomputing, minicomputing, nanocomputing, neurocomputing, parallel computing, quantum computing, reservoir computing, retrocomputing, scientific computing, supercomputing, telecomputing, thin computing, ubiquitous computing, utility computing, transposition, number crunching, mathematical process, mathematical operation, operation, recalculation, object, artificial intelligence, AI

Holonyms: information science, informatics, information processing, IP

Sources

Where this information comes from

Wiktionary data was expanded into structured fields by Wiktextract. Matching Princeton WordNet definitions and semantic relationships, plus CMUdict ARPABET pronunciations, are merged into this same canonical word page.

Wiktionary text is credited to English Wiktionary contributors (revision history) under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0.

Changes made: Wiktionary markup was removed and matching senses were grouped; WordNet and CMUdict evidence was merged into the canonical word page. Source quotations with separate cited works are not republished.

Read the complete source and reuse notes.

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Real reading context

Meaning relationships

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Examples

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