web server
compound.compound. a computer or software that stores website files and sends them to people's browsers when they visit a site.
compound. a computer system or software application that processes requests via HTTP and other protocols to deliver web pages to clients.
The web server is down, so the site won't load.
When you type a URL into your browser, it sends a request to a web server to fetch the page content.
High-traffic websites often distribute incoming requests across multiple web servers to prevent any single machine from becoming overloaded and slowing down the user experience.
A compound of web, referring to the World Wide Web, and server, a term used in computing since the 1960s for a device or program that provides data to others. The specific pairing was established by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN in 1990.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Often used as a compound noun; can refer to either the physical hardware or the software running on it.
Last updated July 22, 2026