What does append mean?
To append something is to add or attach it to the end of an existing document, text, or body of data. The word is most common in formal and technical settings: lawyers append clauses to contracts, researchers append supporting tables to papers, and programmers append records to files or items to lists. Its defining feature is position — unlike general verbs such as 'add' or 'insert', append specifies that the new material goes at the very end, after everything already present. This precision has made it indispensable in computing, where 'append mode' opens a file for writing without erasing its existing contents. Derived from the Latin pendere, 'to hang', the verb entered English in the early seventeenth century and belongs to a family of words all concerned with hanging or being hung: suspend, depend, pendant, and pendulum. Though somewhat formal in tone, append is a useful word whenever the exact placement of added material matters, and it remains standard in both British and American English with no regional variation in meaning.
verbTo append something is to add or attach it to the end of a document, text, or other written material. In computing, it also means to add data to the end of an existing file or data structure.
- To add or attach something, especially written material, at the end of a document or text.
- In computing, to add data to the end of an existing file, list, or other data structure.
"She appended a detailed appendix of sources to the end of her report."
"The lawyer appended a signed copy of the agreement to her email."
"The program appends each new entry to the end of the log file."
Every time you hit 'save' on a log file that just keeps growing, you're using a habit as old as Latin — pendere, 'to hang' — because appending literally hangs new material off the end of what's already there.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of append
Append derives from the Latin appendere, meaning 'to hang upon' or 'to attach', formed from ad- ('to') plus pendere ('to hang'). The verb entered English in the early seventeenth century, initially carrying the sense of hanging or attaching one thing to another before settling into its modern use for adding material to the end of documents. It shares this root with a family of English words concerned with hanging or suspension, including suspend, depend, pendant, and pendulum, all ultimately tracing back to the same Latin verb.
Related word forms
How append is actually used
Append carries a formal register and is most at home in legal, academic, technical, and computing contexts; in everyday speech people more often say 'add' or 'tack on'. It implies addition specifically at the end rather than insertion elsewhere.
Easily confused with append
Prepend means to add something at the beginning of a text or file, whereas append adds it at the end.
An appendix is a noun referring to supplementary material added at the end of a document (or an organ in the body), while append is the verb meaning to add such material.