malware

UK/ˈmæl.wɛː/US/ˈmæl.wɛəɹ/

nounB2Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechleans written

Malware is harmful software built to damage or spy on computers. Scan for malware.

It nearly always arrives by somebody clicking rather than by anybody breaking in. Malware that steals quietly is worth far more than malware that breaks things.

Definitions of malware

1nounmalwareHarmful software built to damage or spy on computers.B2
“The malware had been sitting there for eight months.”

malware is software.

Where it comes from

Proto-Indo-European
*wer-
Middle English
ware
English
ware
English, today
malware

From mal- + -ware. ware comes from Middle English ware. From Middle English ware, from Old English waru, from Proto-West Germanic waru, from Proto-Germanic warō (“attention”) as in beware, in the sense of “an object of care, a valuable”, from Proto-Indo-European wer- (“to watch, keep guard”), whence also ward. Cognate with stq Were (“an item for exchange, barter, or sale; ware”), Dutch waar (“goods offered for sale or use; ware”), German Ware (“ware”), Danish -, Norwegian Bokmål -, Norwegian Nynorsk vare (“ware”), Faroese vøra (“ware”), Icelandic - and Swedish vara (“ware”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Technology & Internet

Practise this word

malware in the wild

Researchers tend to classify malware into one or more sub-types (i.e. computer viruses, worms, Trojan horses, logic bombs, ransomware, spyware, adware, rogue software, wipers and keyloggers).
Malware
Since 2021, malware has been designed to target computer systems that run critical infrastructure such as the electricity distribution network.
Malware
In computing, a trojan horse or trojan is a kind of malware that misleads users as to its true intent by disguising itself as a normal program.
Trojan horse (computing)
Antivirus software (abbreviated to AV software), also known as anti-malware, is software intended to prevent, detect, and remove malware.
Antivirus software
However, with the proliferation of other malware, antivirus software started to protect against other computer threats.
Antivirus software

1 / 3

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

← Vocabulary