résolver

Résolver is a term with several related meanings across languages and technical fields. In standard French, the infinitive for “to solve” is résoudre; the form résolver appears primarily as a technical loanword in IT contexts. The corresponding noun for a person or a component that performs resolution is résolveur. In English and many technical communities, resolver is a common term for software or services that carry out resolution or problem solving, and it is frequently used in reference to computer networking.

In computing, a DNS resolver (résolveur DNS in French) is a server or software library that translates domain names into IP addresses. A resolver may operate recursively, querying other DNS servers to fulfill a request, or it may function as a lightweight stub that hands off work to a recursive resolver. It typically caches results to improve response times and reduce network traffic. DNS resolvers must consider privacy, security, and reliability, and they play a central role in the functioning of the Internet’s domain name system. Developments such as DNS over HTTPS (DoH) and DNS over TLS (DoT) aim to protect the confidentiality and integrity of resolver queries.

Beyond networking, the term resolver is used in broader computing to describe algorithms or systems that find solutions to problems, such as constraint solvers or equation solvers. In French-language technical writing, these are often called solveurs rather than résolveurs, reflecting a preference for the native term in certain contexts.