desktop

noun

desk·top | \ˈdesk-ˌtäp

Definition of desktop

(Entry 1 of 2)

1 : the top surface of a desk also : an area or window on a computer screen in which icons are arranged in a manner analogous to objects on top of a desk

2 : a desktop computer

desktop

adjective

Definition of desktop (Entry 2 of 2)

: of a size that can be conveniently used on a desk or table desktop computers — compare laptop — see also desktop publishing

Examples of desktop in a Sentence

Noun

The desktop was covered with books and stacks of papers. He created a new folder on his desktop.

Adjective

She is working on a desktop video project.

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun

Members can access materials day or night on their desktop, mobile devices, or TV. — Mary Lou Cruz, Sun-Sentinel.com, "Wellington area events July 18-28," 13 July 2018 The image of your entire screen will be saved to your computer’s desktop. — Josie Colt, WIRED, "How to Take a Screenshot on a Mac," 5 July 2018 Log in Subscribe today for full access on your desktop, tablet, and mobile device. — Dave Birkett, Detroit Free Press, "Detroit Lions summer break 'still a critical time for the team'," 11 June 2018 The Enquirer/Adam Baum Cincinnati Enquirer readers now can vote for their favorite spring athletes of the week on their desktop, the cincinnati.com mobile web or cincinnati.com App once a day. — Melanie Laughman, Cincinnati.com, "Vote: Enquirer high school athlete of the week, June 4," 5 June 2018 If a company has some business-critical custom application written in Visual Basic 6, that company isn't going to roll out Linux to its desktops; it's trapped on Windows. — Peter Bright, Ars Technica, "From Win32 to Cocoa: A Windows user’s would-be conversion to Mac OS, part II," 27 May 2018 This deal's a great option for anyone looking to speed up their PC with a solid-state boot drive for their desktop, or a low-capacity drive for a laptop. — Ian Paul, PCWorld, "Speed up your PC with a boot-worthy budget SSD for just $35 today," 11 May 2018 Cloud storage for your files is nice, but a 2-terabyte drive on your desktop is even nicer. — Popular Mechanics, "Build the Ultimate Laptop Desk," 26 June 2012 The same is true for mobile devices and desktop and laptop computers. — Dwight Silverman, San Antonio Express-News, "Wi-Fi upgrade will boost security," 29 June 2018

Recent Examples on the Web: Adjective

Deals on various laptops, desktop PC, monitors, TVs, accessories, etc. — Ars Staff, Ars Technica, "Dealmaster: Memorial Day sales on TVs, laptops, and more are underway [Updated]," 28 May 2018 The third doesn’t exploit any vulnerability at all in Telegram, since (1) developers are clear the desktop version doesn’t provide secret chats and (2) the malware relies on the social engineering of a user. — Dan Goodin, Ars Technica, "It has been a bad week for encrypted messaging and it’s only Wednesday," 16 May 2018 Microsoft is replacing the desktop version of OneNote with the Windows 10 version in Office 2019, along with making the entire Office suite only work on Windows 10. — Tom Warren, The Verge, "Microsoft Office 2019 kills off OneNote desktop app in favor of Windows 10 version," 18 Apr. 2018 Installing Amazon Assistant will enable desktop notifications for Prime Day deals and offer $5 off a Prime Day order of $25 or more. — Jessica Suriano, azcentral, "How to shop like a pro during Amazon Prime Day," 12 July 2018 The availability of applications in the Store is improving, but for now there remains large functional gaps that only desktop applications can fill. — Peter Bright, Ars Technica, "Latest Windows preview suggests you’ll be able to turn S Mode on and off," 7 June 2018 Seeing our online readership shift from a predominantly desktop audience to a much larger smartphone audience underscored the need for our product and technology teams to prioritize mobile-first story forms. — New York Times, "Metrics Are Everywhere in Media. Here’s How They Help.," 23 May 2018 According to NetMarketShare, Chrome is now used by 60 percent of web users, both on mobile and desktop devices, and Firefox looks respectable with 12 percent of desktops, but is almost a rounding error with only 0.6 percent of mobile devices. — Vlad Savov, The Verge, "It’s time to give Firefox a fresh chance," 15 Apr. 2018 Integrated graphics are the mainstay of both mobile and desktop computing. — Peter Bright, Ars Technica, "AMD’s 2018 roadmap: Desktop APUs in February, second-generation Ryzen in April," 8 Jan. 2018

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