warez
/wɛə(ɹ)z/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
uncommon/wɑːɹɛz/
warez noun: software that is illegally obtained or distributed.
Noun
warez (usually uncountable, plural warez)
- Software that is illegally obtained or distributed.
- By the end of the day Mad Hatter, a ringleader of the software piracy group called the Inner Circle, will have poured 300 Mbytes of illegal “warez” onto the Internet.1997 April 1, David McCandless, “Warez Wars”, in Wired, →ISSN
- Too many gamers see nothing wrong with downloading “warez” (usually pronounced “wares,” but also “wah-rez”), retail software products that have been “ripped” to make them smaller and remove copy protection.1999 April, T. Liam McDonald, “WaReZ the Logic?”, in Maximum PC, →ISSN, page 41
Verb
warez (third-person singular simple present warezes, present participle warezing, simple past and past participle warezed)
- To obtain a copy of (software or other works of authorship) illegally.
- Many of these keys are, obviously, being used by people who've warezed XP, but there's also a reasonably large number of software professionals and refuseniks who have used them even though they have a legitimately bought version of XP.2002 June 7, John Lettice, “MS turns up heat on warezed WinXP copies”, in The Register
- Warezed SoundForge Files In Windows Media Player [title]2004 November 12, Timothy Lord, “Warezed SoundForge Files In Windows Media Player”, in Slashdot
Forms of warez
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | warez |
| alternative Internet | juarez |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | warezes |
| present participle | warezing |
| past participle | warezed |
| past | warezed |
Origin of warez
The leetspeak form of wares, as a contraction of software.
Words that rhyme with warez
Questions about warez
- What does warez mean?
- Warez means software that is illegally obtained or distributed.
- What part of speech is warez?
- Warez can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce warez?
- Warez is pronounced /wɛə(ɹ)z/.
- What is the plural of warez?
- The plural of warez is warez.
Words near warez in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: warez (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: en-us-wares.ogg.
Cite this entry: “warez.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/warez. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.