shareware
noun
share·ware ˈsher-ˌwer 
: software with usually limited capability or incomplete documentation which is available for trial use at little or no cost but which can be upgraded upon payment of a fee to the author
Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the Web The company was built on a shareware model, encouraging users to download antiviral software for free and pay later. 
Sam Dean, Los Angeles Times, 23 June 2021 Since then there have been eight additional installments, as the games have spread from shareware and computers to the Game Boy Advance, the original Xbox and all the current consoles. Mike Snider, USA TODAY, 25 July 2019 Her event scores and instructional pieces act like shareware, software provided initially free for users to try, or like apps performing various artistic functions, decades before those terms were coined. Lucy Harvey, Smithsonian, 16 June 2017 Her event scores and instructional pieces act like shareware, software provided initially free for users to try, or like apps performing various artistic functions, decades before those terms were coined. Lucy Harvey, Smithsonian, 16 June 2017 Her event scores and instructional pieces act like shareware, software provided initially free for users to try, or like apps performing various artistic functions, decades before those terms were coined. Lucy Harvey, Smithsonian, 16 June 2017 Her event scores and instructional pieces act like shareware, software provided initially free for users to try, or like apps performing various artistic functions, decades before those terms were coined. Lucy Harvey, Smithsonian, 16 June 2017 Her event scores and instructional pieces act like shareware, software provided initially free for users to try, or like apps performing various artistic functions, decades before those terms were coined. Lucy Harvey, Smithsonian, 16 June 2017 Her event scores and instructional pieces act like shareware, software provided initially free for users to try, or like apps performing various artistic functions, decades before those terms were coined. Lucy Harvey, Smithsonian, 16 June 2017 See More
Sam Dean, Los Angeles Times, 23 June 2021 Since then there have been eight additional installments, as the games have spread from shareware and computers to the Game Boy Advance, the original Xbox and all the current consoles. Mike Snider, USA TODAY, 25 July 2019 Her event scores and instructional pieces act like shareware, software provided initially free for users to try, or like apps performing various artistic functions, decades before those terms were coined. Lucy Harvey, Smithsonian, 16 June 2017 Her event scores and instructional pieces act like shareware, software provided initially free for users to try, or like apps performing various artistic functions, decades before those terms were coined. Lucy Harvey, Smithsonian, 16 June 2017 Her event scores and instructional pieces act like shareware, software provided initially free for users to try, or like apps performing various artistic functions, decades before those terms were coined. Lucy Harvey, Smithsonian, 16 June 2017 Her event scores and instructional pieces act like shareware, software provided initially free for users to try, or like apps performing various artistic functions, decades before those terms were coined. Lucy Harvey, Smithsonian, 16 June 2017 Her event scores and instructional pieces act like shareware, software provided initially free for users to try, or like apps performing various artistic functions, decades before those terms were coined. Lucy Harvey, Smithsonian, 16 June 2017 Her event scores and instructional pieces act like shareware, software provided initially free for users to try, or like apps performing various artistic functions, decades before those terms were coined. Lucy Harvey, Smithsonian, 16 June 2017 See More Word History
First Known Use
1983, in the meaning defined above