reboot

/ˈɹiːbuːt/

reboot noun: an instance of rebooting.

Noun

reboot (plural reboots)

An instance of rebooting.
(broadly) A fresh start.
- That’s why we don’t just need a bailout. We need a reboot. We need a build out. We need a buildup. We need a national makeover.2008 December 24, Thomas L. Friedman, “Time to Reboot America”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
- Other reboots of beloved restaurants, like the Four Seasons, have failed.2020 February 14, Florence Fabricant, “The Beloved West Village Restaurant Barbuto Gets a Reboot”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
The restarting of a series' storyline, discarding all previous continuity.
(widely considered a misuse) The restarting of a series' storyline without discarding previous continuity.
- HBO Max has issued a straight-to-series order for “Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin,” a reboot of the original Freeform series... “We’re such huge fans of what I. Marlene King and her iconic cast created, we knew that we had to treat the original series as #CANON"2020 September 24, “Pretty Little Liars Reboot Ordered To Series at HBO Max”, in Variety
- As well as Ari Parker’s starring role, the reboot will introduce three characters played by people of colour, with Sara Ramirez, Karen Pittman and Sarita Choudhury to join the quartet.2021 August 22, Clea Skopeliti, “Nicole Ari Parker to join Sex and the City reboot in place of Kim Cattrall”, in The Guardian
Synonyms:

sequel, spin-off

Verb

reboot (third-person singular simple present reboots, present participle rebooting, simple past and past participle rebooted)

(ergative) To execute a computer's boot process, effectively resetting the computer and causing the operating system to reload, commonly after a system failure.
- We need to reboot the system after installing these updates.
- The system reboots every weekend after updates are installed.
(broadly) To start afresh.
- They rebooted the TV series, but it's even worse than the original.
- What are the first steps to rebooting your business?2013 May 21, Dan Schawbel, “Mitch Joel: How To Reboot Your Business And Your Life”, in Forbes
Restart; to return to an initial configuration or state.
- Egg farmers do this to reboot birds' internal clocks so they start laying valuable eggs faster and, crucially, at the same time.2011, J. Morris Hicks, Healthy Eating, Healthy World, →ISBN, page 119

reboot meaning in Tamil, Bengali, Kannada and Arabic

reboot in Tamil

மறுஇயக்கம்

reboot in Bengali

নতুন করে শুরু

reboot in Kannada

ಮರುಹೂಡು

reboot in Arabic

instance of rebooting: إِعَادَة التَّشْغِيل
To execute a computer's boot process and reload the operating system: أَعَادَ تَشْغِيل ʔaʕāda tašḡīl

More languagesFewer languages

reboot in Indonesian: menghidupkan ulang
reboot in Vietnamese: khởi động lại

Examples of reboot in a sentence

NASA is once again trying to reboot the Hubble Space Telescope, agency officials said.2008 October 24, Dennis Overbye, “Another Effort to Reboot Telescope”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
As the Republican National Convention kicks off Monday, Donald Trump has a tremendous opportunity to rebrand and reboot his campaign, to make it look and feel more professional and less petulant.2016 July 18, Charles M. Blow, “Trump’s Chance to Reboot”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

All 31 example sentences with reboot

Synonyms of reboot

All synonyms of reboot

Forms of reboot

Noun
plural	reboots
Verb
third-person singular present	reboots
present participle	rebooting
past participle	rebooted
past	rebooted

Past tense of reboot: rebooted

Plural of reboot: reboots

Origin of reboot

From re- + boot.

Words formed from reboot

Phrases with reboot

soft reboot

Words that rhyme with reboot

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about reboot

What does reboot mean?: Reboot means an instance of rebooting.
What is reboot in Tamil?: Reboot in Tamil is மறுஇயக்கம். See Reboot meaning in Tamil.
How do you use reboot in a sentence?: NASA is once again trying to reboot the Hubble Space Telescope, agency officials said.
What part of speech is reboot?: Reboot can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce reboot?: Reboot is pronounced /ˈɹiːbuːt/.
What is the plural of reboot?: The plural of reboot is reboots.

Words near reboot in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: reboot (page history and authors); reboot (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); reboot (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); reboot (Kannada Wiktionary) (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-reboot.ogg.

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