Word.ws English Dictionary

dotfile

dotfile noun: a file or directory whose name begins with a dot (period or full stop), typically hidden from view and sometimes used to store configuration settings.

Noun

dotfile (plural dotfiles)

  1. (Unix) A file or directory whose name begins with a dot (period or full stop), typically hidden from view and sometimes used to store configuration settings.
    • There is also a dotfile generator, which you can use to create dotfiles for many different programs until you get the hang of it.2003, James Lee, Brent Ware, Open source Web development with LAMP
    • In general, a user-defined environment variable can be an effective design choice when the value changes often enough to make editing a dotfile each time […]2004, Eric S. Raymond, The art of Unix programming

Forms of dotfile

pluraldotfiles

Origin of dotfile

From dot + file.

Questions about dotfile

What does dotfile mean?
Dotfile means a file or directory whose name begins with a dot (period or full stop), typically hidden from view and sometimes used to store configuration settings.
What part of speech is dotfile?
Dotfile is a noun.
What is the plural of dotfile?
The plural of dotfile is dotfiles.

Words near dotfile in the dictionary

  1. dotery
  2. dotes
  3. dotes over
  4. dotest
  5. doteth
  6. dotfile
  7. dotfiles
  8. doth
  9. Dothan
  10. dothead
  11. dotheads

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dotfile (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “dotfile.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dotfile. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.