1 : to give a demonstration of (something, such as a product or procedure) : to show how (something) works, is prepared, or is done The chef demoed everything. His first demo was peeling a carrot.— Michael Ruhlman One dealer didn't even have demonstration software; the only thing he could demo was the power light. — Video Magazine

2 : demolish My mom put little masks on me and my brother, gave us goggles and crowbars, and we demo'd the walls.— Matt Damon Brick salvaged from a demoed fireplace and backyard path make up the new stoop and walkway.— Natalie Rodriguez

3 : to create a demo (see demo entry 1 sense 3b) recording of (a piece of music) … spent three months rehearsing and demoing songs for their third album …— David Fricke

4 : to use (something, such as a product) in order to test its quality or value : to try out (something) The surest way to pick exactly the right ski for your needs is to first narrow your choices to a workable number … and then go out and demo three or four pairs to make your final selection.— Bill Grout

demo-

combining form

variants: or before vowels dem-

Definition of demo- (Entry 3 of 3)

: people : populace : population demography demonym

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Examples of demo in a Sentence

Noun She will be showing a demo of the company's new alarm system. a demo version of the software I saw a demo on how to use the computer program. The salesman gave us a demo of the vacuum cleaner, and it seemed to work very well. They sent the demo to several record companies. She cut a demo last week.

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun The company doesn’t need very much data for a short demo. — Washington Post, "The new normal for concerts could involve mixed reality holograms," 16 Dec. 2020 Qualcomm also showed off a demo from Trinamic, a division of BASF, that could even use your phone's sensors to examine and analyze your skin, and detect which skin product to use that day. — Mark Hachman, PCWorld, "Inside the Snapdragon 888: The features you'll find in 2021's premium phones," 2 Dec. 2020 The telethon will include a holiday cooking demo with restaurateur and longtime Browns fan Rocco Whalen of Fahrenheit in Cleveland’s Tremont neighborhood. — Marc Bona, cleveland, "Taste of the Browns auction open, telethon scheduled," 25 Nov. 2020 Stadia could offer a 15-minute trial of every game in its catalog right now, for instance, or let anyone with a Google account choose a single one-hour demo every month to juice try-before-you-buy sales. — Kyle Orland, Ars Technica, "Google Stadia’s free demos could prove the value of game streaming," 20 Oct. 2020 The event will feature a virtual tour, Ask-the-Doctor sessions, a cooking demo featuring culinary medicine physician Dr. Angelica Neison, a live exercise session with a physical therapist, Medicare information and more. — Laura Groch, San Diego Union-Tribune, "South/East County Happenings, Oct. 8," 8 Oct. 2020 Here, Grant recalls the label's creation, its essential tracks and the key to sending the team a successful demo. — Katie Bain, Billboard, "Label Spotlight: 20 Years Ago, a College Project Brought Anjunabeats to Life," 8 Oct. 2020 In a demo, players were tasked with escaping a futuristic laboratory without using their hands. — Washington Post, "Brain-controlled gaming exists, though ethical questions loom over the tech," 16 Dec. 2020 Remember that stunning demo two years ago at Google’s I/O conference when the company showed off its digital assistant calling a hair salon to book an appointment? — Aaron Pressman, Fortune, "Amazon the innovator or Amazon the violator?," 13 Oct. 2020 Recent Examples on the Web: Verb Google was pretty pumped and brought out Mark Ronson and Selena Gomez to demo it. — Jacob Krol, CNN Underscored, "From Nest Audio to the Pixel 5, here’s everything Google announced at Launch Night In," 1 Oct. 2020 There are tons on YouTube, where people demo enterprise resource-planning systems and the like. — Paul Ford, Wired, "The Power and Paradox of Bad Software," 22 Sep. 2020 Ellis recently attended the Virtual Beings Summit, where artificial intelligence companies assembled (remotely, of course) to demo their newest creations. — Lauren Goode, Wired, "The Rise of the Virtual Being," 3 Aug. 2020 Serge Lachapelle, G Suite director of product management, demoed the new feature in a video posted to YouTube on Monday (embedded below). — Mark Hachman, PCWorld, "Video: Google Meet's 'denoiser' noise filtering is shockingly good," 8 June 2020 With his safety glasses and newsboy cap on, Pitt helps demo a ceiling and break through a wall to help give his longtime makeup artist Jean Ann Black a multi-use guest house/workspace. — Erin Jensen, USA TODAY, "Jonathan and Drew Scott's HGTV show 'Celebrity IOU' kicks off with 'true gentleman' Brad Pitt," 14 Apr. 2020 Microsoft was set to demo a few upcoming titles at this year's GDC. — Patrick Shanley, The Hollywood Reporter, "Microsoft Joins Long List of Companies Skipping GDC Over Coronavirus Concerns," 27 Feb. 2020 The news comes just a day after Sony pulled out of PAX East, a week before the convention, where the company was planning to demo more than 20 games, including the much anticipated The Last of Us 2. — Elise Favis, Washington Post, "PlayStation and Facebook cancel GDC plans, citing coronavirus concerns," 20 Feb. 2020 Perry in November sued Phil Brown, claiming the musician wants to release without his permission demos the two recorded together in the early 1990s. — Ashley Cullins, Billboard, "Steve Perry's Lawsuit Over Unreleased Demo Vocals Moves Forward," 18 Mar. 2019

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'demo.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

History and Etymology for demo

Verb

by shortening

Combining form

combining form from Greek dêmos "district, country, people, common people, political district in Attica," of uncertain origin

Note: Greek dêmos has traditionally been linked with Old Irish dám "guests, company, retinue," Old Welsh dauu, glossing Latin cliens (hence, presumably, "member of a retinue"), Modern Welsh daw, dawf "son-in-law." However, the semantic discrepancy between the two etyma is significant, and Celtic *dāmo-/*dāmā- has more recently been explained as going back to *dōmo-, a lengthened-grade adjectival derivative of Indo-European *dom-o-s, "house, household." The further traditional link with Indo-European *deh₂- "cut, divide" (whence Greek daíomai, daíesthai "to divide"; cf. tide entry 1), assuming a noun *deh₂-mos meaning originally "part, division," is still possible, though it would be deprived of any support beside Greek.