Word.ws English Dictionary

rackware

UK/ˈɹækˌwɛə/

rackware noun: low-cost software sold in shops, generally hung on display racks.

Noun

rackware (uncountable)

  1. Low-cost software sold in shops, generally hung on display racks.
    • Rackware, economically-packaged shareware and low-cost retail software that is generally hung on display racks, was pioneered by SoftKey and other companies a decade ago. But the marketing practice has become ubiquitous only in the last year or so. Now just about every airport, department store...1993, PC Mag, volume 12, number 15, page 30
    • Contact database features hundreds of addresses for bulletin boards and rackware1994, Steve Hudgik, Make Money Selling Your Shareware

Examples of rackware in a sentence

  • Rackware, economically-packaged shareware and low-cost retail software that is generally hung on display racks, was pioneered by SoftKey and other companies a decade ago.1993, PC Mag, volume 12, number 15, page 30:
  • Another advantage of rackware publishing is ownership.1994, Game Developer, volume 1, page 53:

Origin of rackware

From rack + -ware.

Questions about rackware

What does rackware mean?
Rackware means low-cost software sold in shops, generally hung on display racks.
How do you use rackware in a sentence?
Rackware, economically-packaged shareware and low-cost retail software that is generally hung on display racks, was pioneered by SoftKey and other companies a decade ago.
What part of speech is rackware?
Rackware is a noun.
How do you pronounce rackware?
Rackware is pronounced /ˈɹækˌwɛə/ (UK).

Words near rackware in the dictionary

  1. racks up
  2. racksful
  3. rackt
  4. racktacular
  5. racktastic
  6. rackware
  7. rackwork
  8. rackworks
  9. raclage
  10. raclan
  11. raclans

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rackware (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-rackware.wav.

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