Definitions

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Computers) a data-storage medium consisting of a small plastic disk coated with a thin layer of magnetizable material on one or both sides, enclosed in a stiff envelope with a radial slit. It is used in a specially designed disk drive, in which the disk is rotated at high speed, and which stores data on the disk by causing changes in the direction of magnetization of the magnetic layer as the disk spins and as sequential locations on the disk pass under the read-write head of the drive. Reading of the data occurs in the reverse process, by detection of the patterns of magnetization of the disk. Such disks are used to store data or programs for a microcomputer.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun computing A small, flexible, magnetic disk for storage and retrieval of data.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a small plastic magnetic disk enclosed in a stiff envelope with a radial slit; used to store data or programs for a microcomputer

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

disk + -ette, by analogy with cassette

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Examples

  • The so-called diskette is a flat black square of rather tough plastic with a hole in the middle and an oblong slot on each of the flat sides; it is said to be 51/4 inches square, but that is a lie: as the only person who probably ever measured one of these things, I can tell you it is 5 3/16 inches square; that may seem irrelevant, but it is only the beginning of the Great Deception.

    VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol XV No 1 1988

  • In case you're wondering - I prefer the term 'diskette' for the 3.5 "variants, and reserve the term 'floppy' for the 5.25" and 8 "variants, for obvious reasons.

    OSNews Thom Holwerda 2010

  • The first PC came standard with 16ÂkilobytesÂKB of memory at a bare-bones price of $1,265 without a monitor of a diskette drive.

    Larry Magid: Happy 30th Anniversary IBM PC Larry Magid 2011

  • The first PC came standard with 16kilobytesKB of memory at a bare-bones price of $1,265 without a monitor of a diskette drive.

    Larry Magid: Happy 30th Anniversary IBM PC Larry Magid 2011

  • (I copied it onto diskette, too, at that same place, in that same year, but I never resold it nor represented it as my own work.)

    Rip (Off) City (Jack Bog's Blog) 2009

  • An electronic file (email attachment or diskette) of the calendar is available in Microsoft Word format for $10.00.

    This you won't believe 2009

  • Vinyl record albums, VHS videotapes, audio tape cassettes: All these dead icons of consumer media will soon be joined by another once-prominent format — the 3. 5-inch computer "floppy" diskette.

    Sony bids “sayonara” to 3.5-inch floppy disks 2010

  • When was the last time you ever used a floppy diskette?

    Sony bids “sayonara” to 3.5-inch floppy disks 2010

  • Late last Friday, Sony announced that it will close down its diskette production plant in Japan and discontinue world-wide sales of the hard-shelled removable disks by next March.

    Sony bids “sayonara” to 3.5-inch floppy disks 2010

  • The beginning of the end for the diskette arrived quite awhile ago, back around 1998, when Apple abandoned it altogether in the design of their early iMacs, a move seen as controversial at the time.

    Sony bids “sayonara” to 3.5-inch floppy disks 2010

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