Client

How to spell client

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce client

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does client mean?

1. nounA person or organisation that uses the professional services of another.
2. nounA program or device that requests data or services from a server.

Client in a sentence

• The law firm signed a major new client this morning.

• The email client downloaded the latest messages from the server.

• Every client receives a detailed invoice at the end of the month.

• A lightweight client runs faster on older laptops.

Where does client come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin cliens, which described a dependent person of lower rank who attached himself to a wealthier or more powerful patron for protection and support. The root is thought to derive from the verb cluere, meaning 'to listen' or 'to obey', so the original client was literally someone who heeded and followed a patron's lead. In ancient Rome the relationship between patron and client was a formal social bond, with the client offering loyalty in exchange for favours and legal backing. English took the word up in the late 1300s, at first to mean a person under another's protection and soon afterwards to mean someone who employs the professional services of a lawyer. From that legal sense it spread to cover anyone who buys services from a professional, and in modern computing it even names a program that requests data from a server. The spelling stays close to the Latin original, with the tidy -ent ending that catches writers who are tempted to write -ant.

How the word is built

• cli- (from cliens: a dependent, one who leans on a protector)
• -ent (noun suffix)