warez

English

Alternative forms

• juarez (Internet slang)

Etymology

The leetspeak form of wares, as a contraction of software.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wɛə(ɹ)z/, (uncommon) /wɑːɹɛz/

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛə(ɹ)z
• Homophones: wares, wears, where's (in accents with the wine-whine merger)

Noun

warez (usually uncountable, plural warez)

1. (Internet slang, leetspeak, dated) Software that is illegally obtained or distributed.
   • 1997 April 1, David McCandless, “Warez Wars”, in Wired‎^[1], →ISSN:

     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.

   • 1999 April, T. Liam McDonald, “WaReZ the Logic?”, in Maximum PC, →ISSN, page 41:

     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.

   • 2012, Eric Diehl, Securing Digital Video […] , Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 16:

     Warez appeared in the 1980s with the advent of Bulletin Board Systems.

Translations

software illegally obtained or distributed

• Georgian: ვარეზი (varezi) (colloquial)
• Japanese: 割れ (ware), 割れもの (waremono), ワレズ (warezu)
• Polish: warez (pl) m
• Russian: варез (ru) (varez)

Verb

warez (third-person singular simple present warezes, present participle warezing, simple past and past participle warezed)

1. (Internet slang, leetspeak, dated) To obtain a copy of (software or other works of authorship) illegally.
   • 2002 June 7, John Lettice, “MS turns up heat on warezed WinXP copies”, in The Register‎^[2]:

     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.

   • 2004 November 12, Timothy Lord, “Warezed SoundForge Files In Windows Media Player”, in Slashdot‎^[3]:

     Warezed SoundForge Files In Windows Media Player [title]

Translations

copy illegally

• Finnish: warettaa (fi)
• Japanese: 割る (ja) (waru)