software engineering
English
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software engineering
Where it comes from
First attested in 1965 in service listings (in “systems software engineering”), partly popularized by American computer scientists Anthony Oettinger and Margaret Hamilton later in the decade. In a 1966 letter to the members of the Association for Computing Machinery, listed by the Oxford English Dictionary as the term’s first attestation, Oettinger wrote, “We must recognize ourselves […] as members of an engineering profession, be it hardware engineering or software engineering […]”.
noun
- The subfield of engineering concerned with applying a systematic, disciplined, quantifiable approach to the development, operation, and maintenance of software.
Translations
Every language
noun subfield of engineering concerned with the development, operation, and maintenance of software
| 한국어 | 소프트웨어 공학 sopeuteuweeo gonghak |
|---|---|
| 日本語 | ソフトウェア工学 sofutouea kougaku |
| 中文 | 軟件工程 /软件工程 ruǎnjiàn gōngchéng |
| हिन्दी | सॉफ़्टवेयर अभियांत्रिकी sŏfṭaveyar abhiyāntrikī, तंत्रांश अभियांत्रिकी tantrāñś abhiyāntrikī |
| Português | engenharia de software |
| Français | génie logiciel |
| Deutsch | Softwaretechnik |
| Italiano | ingegneria del software |
| Ελληνικά | μηχανική λογισμικού michanikí logismikoú, τεχνολογία λογισμικού technología logismikoú |
| Română | inginerie software, ingineria programării |
| العربية | هندسة البرمجيات |
Talk about this word "software engineering." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/software%20engineering. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. software engineering. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/software%20engineering "software engineering." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/software%20engineering.Cite this
@misc{software_engineering_2026,
title = {software engineering},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/software%20engineering},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
