developer

American  

[dih-vel-uh-per] / dɪˈvɛl ə pər /

noun

1. a person or thing that develops or innovates.

   a software developer.

2. Photography. a reducing agent or solution for developing developing a film or the like.

3. a person who invests in and develops the urban or suburban potentialities of real estate, especially by subdividing the land into home sites and then building houses and selling them.

4. Shipbuilding. a person who lays out at full size the lines of a vessel and prepares templates from them.

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developer British  

/ dɪˈvɛləpə /

noun

1. a person or thing that develops something, esp a person who develops property

2. photog a solution of a chemical reducing agent that converts the latent image recorded in the emulsion of a film or paper into a visible image

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Etymology

Origin of developer

First recorded in 1825–35; develop + -er ¹

Example Sentences

“We’re incentivizing developers whose only go/no-go is whether the factory stays in business. To me, that’s a developer who is probably not very savvy.”

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 3, 2026

The software developer from Woolwich Township, N.J., also owns a Hyundai Ioniq 5, which is fully electric.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 3, 2026

An internal-use file mistakenly included in a software update pointed to an archive containing nearly 2,000 files and 500,000 lines of code, which were quickly copied to developer platform GitHub.

From Barron's • Apr. 1, 2026

The developer is expected to appeal against the decision.

From BBC • Apr. 1, 2026

In any case, despite the anti- climactic results, the test results were interpreted by the AEC as validating Livermore’s role as the developer of “new ideas” in thermonuclear technology.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik

Related Words

• builder
• planner