What does reinstallation mean?
Reinstallation means installing something again. It is used most often when software, an operating system, drivers, or other components must be placed on a computer again because they have been removed, damaged, replaced, or malfunctioning. The expression “a complete reinstallation” commonly implies removing existing files or configuration and beginning again with a fresh copy. It can also have a formal nontechnical meaning: the return of a dismissed person, displaced official, or discontinued arrangement to a previous position. In that sense, reininstallation stresses restoration rather than the repeated installation of a product. The prefix re-, meaning “again,” joined the established noun installation to create this word. Although sometimes hyphenated as re-installation, the closed form is standard in current usage. Reinstallation differs from an upgrade, which moves software to a newer version, and from an update, which modifies or supplements an existing installation.
The act of installing software, hardware, an operating system, or a configuration again after removal, replacement, or failure.
"Reinstallation of the application fixed the missing sound driver."
Common in computing and technical contexts; “complete reinstallation” implies restoring the system to a fresh state.
The formal restoration of a person, office, system, or arrangement to a previous position or status.
"The court ordered the reinstatement and reinstallation of the suspended member."
Formal and much less common than the technical sense.
Plural forms are used when referring to separate repeated acts of installing something again.
"Several reinstallations failed to resolve the configuration error."
When one click still fails, the technical escape hatch is often the dramatic remedy: reinstallation.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does reinstallation come from?
Reinstallation combines the prefix re-, meaning “again,” with installation, a word formed from install. Install ultimately comes through French from Latin installare, meaning “to place in position.” The prefixed form developed as a term for restoring software or a system by installing it again and later acquired a formal sense of restoring a person or arrangement to a former position.
Related word forms
How reinstallation is actually used
The word is most common in computing and technical contexts. Its second sense is formal and less frequent, in which it describes returning something to its former position or status.
Easily confused with reinstallation
Installation is the initial process of placing software or configuring a system, whereas reinstallation is the repeated performance of that process.