What does server mean?
A server is principally a computer, device, or software application that provides information or services to other computers over a network. Web servers respond to requests for pages, file servers store and distribute files, and email servers handle electronic messages. In these contexts, the word suggests reliability, capacity, and continuous availability: clients request resources, and the server supplies or coordinates them. The older human senses are also established. A restaurant server attends diners and takes their orders, while in tennis and similar racket sports, the server is the player responsible for putting the ball into play. Across all these meanings, the central idea is service: a server makes resources or assistance available to someone else. The computing sense dominates contemporary usage, especially in discussions of networks, websites, cloud computing, and system administration. The culinary sense is familiar but often replaced by the more explicitly gendered terms waiter and waitress when naming restaurant workers.
nounA computer, device, or software application that provides data or services to other computers over a network. The word can also denote an attendant or a player who serves the ball in a sport such as tennis.
- A computer, device, or software application that stores data and responds to requests from client devices or other users over a network.
- A person who serves food or drink to diners, especially in a restaurant.
- A player whose turn it is to serve the ball in tennis, badminton, squash, or a similar sport.
"The website's server processes requests from visitors around the world."
"The company replaced its aging server with a more reliable system."
"Please ask your server for a menu if you need help choosing a meal."
"The server opened with a powerful serve that set up an easy winner."
Use the plural when referring to multiple networked computers, applications, attendants, or players serving the ball.
"The servers process thousands of requests every second."
From a human attendant to the machine that serves web pages, a server is anything devoted to answering requests.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does server come from?
The word entered Middle English in the sense of a servant or one who serves, through Old French from Latin servire, meaning "to serve" or "to be a slave to." Its computing sense developed much later as the terminology of networks and client-server systems became established. The root also underlies English words such as preserve, servant, and servile.
Related word forms
How server is actually used
In modern computing, the word usually refers to networked hardware or software rather than to a person. The culinary sense remains common but is less formal than "waiter" or "waitress" in service-industry writing. In tennis commentary, "server" names the player currently serving.
Easily confused with server
A server provides a service or waits on others, while a serving is an individual portion of food or drink.
A waiter is an attendant in a restaurant or similar establishment, whereas a server is the broader term for one who serves or provides resources to others.