Microsoft Full Form: What Does the Name Microsoft Mean?
Microsoft is a blend of two words: microcomputer and software. It is not an acronym, so no letter stands for a separate word.
The full company name is Microsoft Corporation. That is the legal name used in filings and contracts. On the stock market it trades as MSFT.
The name was chosen to say what the company sold. It wrote software for microcomputers.
The two halves of the name
| Part of the name | Comes from | What it meant |
|---|---|---|
| Micro | Microcomputer | A small computer built around a single chip |
| Soft | Software | The programs that run on that computer |
| Full name | Microsoft Corporation | The registered company name |
| Short forms | MS, MSFT | MS in writing, MSFT on the stock market |
A microcomputer was the early name for a personal computer. Before it, most computers filled a room and were shared by many users.
The name was first written with a hyphen, as Micro-Soft. The hyphen was dropped soon after.
Where the name came from
Bill Gates and Paul Allen started the company to write software for the first home computers. Their first product was a version of the BASIC programming language for the Altair 8800.
At that time almost nobody sold software on its own. Hardware makers gave programs away with the machine.
The bet behind the name was simple. Small computers would spread, and someone would need to write the programs for them.
What Microsoft means today
Microsoft is an American technology company. It is one of the largest software companies in the world.
The main products fall into a few groups.
- Windows. The operating system used on most desktop and laptop computers.
- Microsoft 365. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams, sold as a subscription.
- Azure. A cloud platform that rents computing, storage and databases.
- Gaming. Xbox consoles, Game Pass and a large group of game studios.
- Developer tools. Visual Studio, VS Code, TypeScript and GitHub.
- LinkedIn. The professional network, owned by Microsoft.
So the name now covers far more than the software in it. The company also sells hardware, such as the Surface line.
Common mix-ups
MS is a short form, not the full form. People write MS Word or MS Excel, and it simply means Microsoft.
MSFT is the stock ticker. Use it for the share price, not for the company in normal writing.
Microsoft Corporation is the parent company. Local arms carry longer names, such as Microsoft Corporation India Private Limited, and those are separate registered entities.
There is no official expansion of the letters, because there are no letters to expand. If a quiz asks for the full form of Microsoft, the answer is microcomputer plus software.
A word built by joining parts of two other words is called a portmanteau. Microsoft is one, in the same way as internet or email.
An acronym is different. It takes the first letter of each word, the way IBM stands for International Business Machines.
So the two questions have different answers. Microsoft has a full company name, Microsoft Corporation, but it has no full form in the acronym sense.
How to Prepare
If you are asked about the company in an interview, the name is a small part of a bigger answer.
- Know what the company sells now. Cloud and AI services matter more than the origin of the name. What is Microsoft basics gives the short version.
- Have a reason for wanting to join. Tie it to one product you have used. Why should I join Microsoft shows how to shape that answer.
- Learn the languages the teams use. Which coding language is used by Microsoft covers the main ones.
- Practice the coding patterns. Most rounds test the same small set. Grokking the Coding Interview and Grokking the Microsoft Coding Interview both work through them.
- Prepare the company questions out loud. Top Microsoft behavioral interview questions lists what gets asked.
- Read the process end to end. The Microsoft interview guide covers every round.
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