notify

Notify is a verb meaning to inform someone about a fact, event, or action, or to warn or advise of a consequence. The noun form is notification, and the related term notice is commonly used in formal or legal contexts. The concept centers on making information known to a person or group.

Etymology: from Latin notificare "to inform, make known", through Old French notifie; the sense of giving formal notice appears in English in the 15th century.

In everyday language, to notify someone is to communicate information promptly. In legal or administrative contexts, parties may be required to notify others of deadlines, changes to terms, or the impending termination of an agreement. A failure to notify can affect rights or remedies, and formal notices may require specific methods or timings.

In information technology and computing, notify commonly denotes mechanisms for alerting users or coordinating processes. For example, in Java, Object.notify and Object.notifyAll wake threads waiting on an object's monitor. In PostgreSQL, the NOTIFY command sends a notification to listening sessions. POSIX message queues provide mq_notify to register for asynchronous alerts when messages arrive. In user interfaces, notifications and push alerts deliver information to end users on devices or desktops. In software design, notification services enable event-driven behavior and decoupled components.

See also: notification, alert, announcement, warning, inform.