Phrase guide

text file

noun · 3 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.

No pronunciation record was provided for this word.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A datafile containing only plain, human-readable text, distinct from documents with embedded formatting.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: computing, engineering, mathematics, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

A datafile in a character encoding that allows it to be read in a nonspecialized text editor.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: computing, engineering, mathematics, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

(computer science) a computer file that contains text (and possibly formatting instructions) using seven-bit ASCII characters

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: document

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: computer file

Narrower terms: web page, webpage, ASCII text file

History

Etymology

No etymology was provided for this word.

Across languages

Translations

17 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Chinese Mandarin: 文本文件 (wénběn wénjiàn) — plain, human-readable file containing only text
  • Danish: tekstfil — plain, human-readable file containing only text
  • Dutch: tekstbestand — plain, human-readable file containing only text
  • Estonian: tekstifail — plain, human-readable file containing only text
  • Finnish: tekstitiedosto — plain, human-readable file containing only text
  • French: fichier texte — plain, human-readable file containing only text
  • Georgian: ტექსტური ფაილი (ṭeksṭuri paili) — plain, human-readable file containing only text
  • German: Textdatei — plain, human-readable file containing only text
  • Hungarian: szövegfájl — plain, human-readable file containing only text
  • Japanese: テキストファイル (tekisuto fairu) — plain, human-readable file containing only text
  • Norwegian Bokmål: tekstfil — plain, human-readable file containing only text
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: tekstfil — plain, human-readable file containing only text
  • Polish: plik tekstowy — plain, human-readable file containing only text
  • Russian: те́кстовый файл (tékstovyj fajl) — plain, human-readable file containing only text
  • Swedish: textfil — plain, human-readable file containing only text
  • Tagalog: talaksang-akda — plain, human-readable file containing only text
  • Turkish: metin dosyası — plain, human-readable file containing only text