From Middle English client, from Anglo-Norman clyent, Old French client, from Latin cliēns, akin to clinare.

• IPA: /ˈklaɪ.ənt/

client (plural clients)

1. A customer, a buyer or receiver of goods or services.
2. (computing) The role of a computer application or system that requests and/or consumes the services provided by another having the role of server.
3. A person who receives help or services from a professional such as a lawyer or accountant.
   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC ↗:

     I corralled the judge, and we started off across the fields […] . And thus we came by a circuitous route to Mohair, […] . My client welcomed the judge […] and they disappeared together into the Ethiopian card-room, which was filled with the assegais and exclamation point shields Mr. Cooke had had made at the sawmill at Beaverton.

4. (legal) A person who employs or retains an attorney to represent him or her in any legal matter, or one who merely divulges confidential matters to an attorney while pursuing professional assistance without subsequently retaining the attorney.
5. Short for client state.
   • 1989, Edward A. Kolodziej, Roger E. Kanet, Limits of Soviet Power, page 95:

     A third preliminary comment deals explicitly with the relations between clients and superpowers.

• (customer) buyer, customer, patron, purchaser

• (antonym(s) of “computing”): server

• clientele
• climate
• cline

• French: client, cliente
• German: Kunde, Kundin, Klient, Klientin
• Italian: cliente
• Portuguese: cliente, freguês
• Russian: клие́нт
• Spanish: cliente

• French: client
• German: Klient
• Portuguese: cliente
• Russian: клие́нт
• Spanish: cliente

• French: client
• German: Klient, Mandant (of a lawyer)
• Italian: cliente
• Portuguese: cliente
• Russian: клие́нт
• Spanish: cliente