Word.ws English Dictionary

retroware

Syllables: ret·ro·wareUK/ˈɹɛt.ɹəʊˌwɛə/US/ˈɹɛt.ɹoʊˌwɛɹ/

retroware noun: old software/hardware.

Noun

retroware (usually uncountable, plural (nonstandard) retrowares)

  1. (informal, usually) Old software/hardware.
    • Microsoft itself has shown only two games for Win 95: Fury3, a Descent-like flight sim, and Return of Arcade, another retroware disk.1995 June 28, Rob Pegoraro, “Behind the Screens”, in The Washington Post, archived from the original on 22 May 2025
    • The March issue of Wired looks at retroware, the growing use of older computers, in an article by Mark Frauenfelder titled “Never Say Die”.2000 March 10, “Other voices”, in The Houston Chronicle

Forms of retroware

plural (nonstandard)retrowares

Origin of retroware

Blend of retro + software /hardware, or from retro- (“old-fashioned or old-school”) + -ware (“software”). First attested in 1995, but in common usage only as of the 21st century.

Questions about retroware

What does retroware mean?
Retroware means old software/hardware.
What part of speech is retroware?
Retroware is a noun.
How do you pronounce retroware?
Retroware is pronounced /ˈɹɛt.ɹəʊˌwɛə/ (UK).

Words near retroware in the dictionary

  1. retrovirus
  2. retroviruses
  3. retrovisceral
  4. retrovision
  5. retrovisions
  6. retroware
  7. retrowares
  8. retrowave
  9. retroxiphoid
  10. retrozonular
  11. retrozygomatic

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: retroware (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.

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