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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

hardware.

Fixtures, equipment, fasteners, tools, and devices used for general-purpose construction and repair of a structure or object. Also such equipment as sold as stock by a store of the same name, e.g. hardware store.

8 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈhɑɹdˌwɛɹ/General-American/ˈhɑːdˌwɛə/Received-Pronunciation
  1. Fixtures, equipment, fasteners, tools, and devices used for general-purpose construction and repair of a structure or object. Also such equipment as sold as stock by a store of the same name, e.g. hardware store.

    uncountable
    He needed a hammer, nails, screws, nuts, bolts and other assorted hardware, so he went to the hardware store.
  2. Equipment.

    informal · uncountable
    military hardware
  3. The part of a computer that is fixed and cannot be altered without replacement or physical modification; motherboard, expansion cards, etc.

    uncountable
  4. Electronic equipment.

    uncountable
  5. Metal implements.

    uncountable
    The designers have put their logo on the hardware of this bag here.
  6. A firearm.

    slang · uncountable
  7. Medals or trophies.

    slang · uncountable
  8. Ellipsis of hardware store.

    Philippines · abbreviation · alt-of · ellipsis · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English hardware; equivalent to hard + -ware; attested since the mid-15th century.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.