User

How to spell user

4 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce user

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does user mean?

1. nounA person who uses or operates something, especially a product, service, or system.

User in a sentence

• Every user must agree to the terms before logging in.

• The app collects feedback from each user after the trial period.

Where does user come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb uti, meaning 'to use, employ, or make use of', whose past participle usus gave rise to a whole family of words about putting things to practical purpose. Old French inherited the verb as user, meaning 'to employ or wear out', and Middle English borrowed it during the 1200s. To this root the native English agent suffix -er was attached, the same ending found in 'baker' or 'writer', producing a noun for the person who uses something. For centuries the word simply meant someone who makes use of a thing, but in the twentieth century it gained two sharply modern senses: the person interacting with a computer system, and, more darkly, a habitual taker of drugs. The single doubled-free spelling rarely trips writers, since 'use' plus '-er' is wholly transparent.

How the word is built

• use (from Latin uti: to use)
• -er (agent suffix: one who does)