ETYM as. word; akin to OFries. and os. word, Dutch woord, German wort, Icel. orth, Swed. and Dan. ord, Goth. waúrd, OPruss. wirds, Lith. vardas a name, Latin verbum a word; or perhaps to Greek retor an orator. Related to Verb.
(Homonym: whirred).
1. A unit of language that native speakers can identify.
2. A brief statement.
3. A verbal command for action.
4. A string of bits stored in computer memory.

1. To speak
2. To express in words; phrase

Microsoft’s word processing software, available for the Windows and Macintosh platforms. In addition to extensive editing, formatting, and customization features, Word provides such tools as automatic text completion and correction. The most recent version, Word 2002 (part of Office XP) adds Web functionality—for example, the ability to save documents in HTML format. The first version, Microsoft Word for MS-DOS 1.00, was introduced in 1983.
Word processing program for the IBM PC and Apple Macintosh produced by Microsoft. Word began 1983 as an MS-DOS program, but was much less successful than its rival, WordPerfect and development ceased 1993. However, with the arrival of Windows 3.0, Word for Windows established itself as the leading Windows word processor 1991.

The native unit of storage on a particular machine. A word is the largest amount of data that can be handled by the microprocessor in one operation and also, as a rule, is the width of the main data bus. Word sizes of 16 bits and 32 bits are the most common. Compare byte, octet.
In computing, a group of bits (binary digits) that a computer's central processing unit treats as a single working unit. The size of a word varies from one computer to another and, in general, increasing the word length leads to a faster and more powerful computer. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, most microcomputers were 8-bit machines. During the 1980s 16-bit microcomputers were introduced and 32-bit microcomputers are now available. Mainframe computers may be 32-bit or 64-bit machines.
In computers, a block of data made up of many “bits”.
Number of bits treated as a single unit by the cpu. In an 8-bit machine, the word length is 8 bits; in a sixteen bit machine, it is 16 bits.