Word.ws English Dictionary

sideload

sideload verb: to transfer data between two local devices, rather than to or from a remote device.

Verb

sideload (third-person singular simple present sideloads, present participle sideloading, simple past and past participle sideloaded)

  1. (transitive) To transfer data between two local devices, rather than to or from a remote device.
    • I'm going to sideload my computer's address book onto my mobile phone.
    • When you sideload content onto your nook, you'll find the items in My Documents.2010, Jim Cheshire, Using Nook
  2. (transitive) To install an app on a mobile device by using any app store that doesn't come preinstalled like Google Play or Apple App Store. Or installing an app from an installation package. (.apk/.ipa)
    • Developer: I'm not paying 25$ to Google to put my free app on Google Play. User: I'm fine sideloading it from F-Droid. Thank you for the free app!

Forms of sideload

third-person singular presentsideloads
present participlesideloading
past participlesideloaded
pastsideloaded

Origin of sideload

From side + load, modelled on upload and download.

Questions about sideload

What does sideload mean?
Sideload means to transfer data between two local devices, rather than to or from a remote device.
What part of speech is sideload?
Sideload is a verb.
What is the past tense of sideload?
The past tense of sideload is sideloaded.

Words near sideload in the dictionary

  1. sidelinings
  2. sidelite
  3. sidelites
  4. Sidell
  5. Sidells
  6. sideload
  7. sideloaded
  8. sideloader
  9. sideloaders
  10. sideloading
  11. sideloads

Source and license

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