Heruntergeladen

Heruntergeladen is the past participle of the German verb herunterladen, meaning to download, i.e., to transfer data from a remote server to a local device such as a computer or smartphone. The verb is separable: in the present tense you say ich lade die Datei herunter; in the perfect tense the prefix is separated, and the participle appears with haben: ich habe die Datei heruntergeladen. The prefix "herunter-" conveys movement toward the receiver’s device and contrasts with hochladen, which means to upload.

Used as an adjective, heruntergeladen describes something that has already been downloaded. For example: Die heruntergeladene Datei ist auf dem Computer gespeichert. As a noun, the act of downloading is das Herunterladen; the anglicized loanword Download is common in technical writing.

Usage notes: In everyday German, the past participle is often used to describe files or data that have been obtained via the internet, with the surrounding context indicating whether the download was legal or illegal. The related verb hochladen means to upload to a remote location. In computing and digital contexts, heruntergeladen and herunterladen are common in instructions, descriptions of file states, and user interfaces.