Widget

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɪdʒɪt

Coined by George S. Kaufman in his play Beggar on Horseback (1924).

Full definition of widget

Noun

1. A placeholder name for an unnamed, unspecified, or hypothetical manufactured good or product.Suppose we have a widget factory that produces 100 units per year...
2. Portable code that can be easily installed and executed by an end user.
3. A floating widget or other device inside a beer can, meant to create foam when opened
4. A small scraping tool consisting of a blade and a handle, commonly used to remove paint from glass and other smooth surfaces

Synonyms

• (unspecified manufactured good) thingy, gizmo, sprocket
• (scraping tool) scraper

Borrowed as a shortened form of “window gadget”

Noun

1. (computing, graphical user interface) Any one of the components of a computer application's graphical user interface, such as a Cancel button or text input box that a user interacts with.

Synonyms

• (GUI) control