widget

noun

wid·​get ˈwi-jət 

1

: gadget

2

: an unnamed article considered for purposes of hypothetical example

3

: a small software application that is designed to provide a specific piece of information (such as news, weather, or traffic updates) or a specific function (such as taking notes or controlling another application) on demand

This resource allows anglers to see what advisories are in effect in specific waterways … . The web page is optimized for mobile devices, with a widget that allows users to zoom to their exact location on the map with the press of a button.

—Chris Knauss

A widget might show you the weather forecast, or the latest baseball scores. There are widgets that show photographs you've stored online, or that cull images from the Daily Puppy Web site.

—Rob Walker

Synonyms

• appliance
• contraption
• contrivance
• gadget
• gimmick
• gizmo
• gismo
• jigger

Examples of widget in a Sentence

manufacturers of all kinds of widgets for the do-it-yourselfer

Recent Examples on the Web

Now Brief and the Now Bar One UI 7 generates daily briefs that are accessible through the Now Brief widget. —PCMAG, 29 Jan. 2025

The Microsoft Edge Game Assist feature is a widget that appears in the Game Bar in Windows 11 much like Valve’s Steam overlay browser. —Tom Warren, The Verge, 21 Jan. 2025

For the leaders of today’s cultural industries, films, TV series, albums, even books seem to be no more than widgets on an algorithmic assembly line, as fungible as yards of textile or gauges of steel. —Matt Brennan, Los Angeles Times, 19 Jan. 2025

Some companies are moving away from treating workers as replaceable widgets — as pure cost centers — and increasingly see them as the key to improving productivity and innovation, which are now the key drivers of long-term profit. —Peter Georgescu, Forbes, 15 Jan. 2025

Word History

Etymology

alteration of gadget

First Known Use

1924, in the meaning defined at sense 1