Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A series of digital media files distributed over the Internet to which a user can subscribe by means of syndication software.
  • noun The content of one or all of the files in such a series.
  • intransitive verb To distribute a series of digital media files over the Internet in a format accessible by syndication software.

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

  • noun An audio programme in a compressed digital format, delivered via an RSS feed over the Internet to a subscriber and designed for playback on computers or portable digital audio players, such as the iPod.
  • verb transitive To deliver (audio) via an RSS feed over the internet to a subscriber.
  • verb transitive Simple past tense and past participle of podcast..

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

  • verb distribute (multimedia files) over the internet for playback on a mobile device or a personal computer

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[(i)Pod, a trademark for a portable digital audio player + (broad)cast.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Blend of iPod and broadcast.

Support

The word podcast has been adopted by Grammar Girl, an early adopter!

Help support Wordnik by adopting your own word here.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Marketings greatest triumph of hype over reality. If you said you were going to record your musings on a cassette recorder and distribute copies to all your friends and strangers at the Mall, most people would instantly label you as a flake, and run the other way. So along comes a snake oil salesman, looking for new and better ways to sell his snake oil. His latest snake oil is the cassette/boombox/transistor radio/ of the millenium that performs the same function, but is guarenteed to wear out quickly and is sure to destroy any purchased music product with it. Mr. Snake oil takes the catchy sub literate name 'pod' and sticks it together with casting, like from broadcasting, and voila, a true abomination is born. The simple fact is that this fad will pass, and those hours of 'casts' will thankfully disapear along with thier authors fantasies of talent.

    December 2, 2006

  • I'm pretty sure the term originated several years into the 21st century.

    December 2, 2006

  • Can you guys delete my first pronunciation? My mic was waaaay too loud. Got it right the second time, though.

    November 19, 2009

  • jonzjonz,

    do you really think this is the place to start criticizing podcasts? Oh, and by the way, your post is three years old and podcasts are doing quite well.

    November 30, 2009