application programming interface

noun

variants or less commonly application program interface

computing

: a set of rules that allows programmers to develop software for a particular operating system without having to be completely familiar with that operating system

To fix this problem, trustbusters have installed a provision forcing Microsoft to disclose more information about its so-called application programming interfaces, or APIs.

—Business Week

—abbreviation API

Examples of application programming interface in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The first is inferencing, or when users interact with the Claude chatbot or businesses tap Anthropic's application programming interfaces (APIs) to build their own tools using Claude's AI models. —Paulina Likos, CNBC, 17 Sep. 2025

Anthropic used data selected from one million application programming interface transcripts from mostly businesses and software developers for its report. —Sasha Rogelberg, Fortune, 16 Sep. 2025

Delivering tailored creative and content across multiple channels and platforms involves coordinating numerous workflows and application programming interfaces (APIs). —Diaz Nesamoney, Forbes.com, 10 Sep. 2025

Independent researcher Farzan Karimi first realized years ago that misconfigurations in application programming interfaces, or APIs, exposed streaming content to unauthorized access. —Lily Hay Newman, Wired News, 8 Aug. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1968, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for application programming interface

• abase
• airspace
• apace
• backspace
• biface
• birthplace
• blackface
• boldface
• bookcase
• braincase
• briefcase
• carcase