Word Net

widget n : a device that is very useful for a particular job [syn: appliance, contraption, contrivance, convenience, gadget, gizmo, gismo]

Moby Thesaurus

Blend of window and gadget, coined by George S. Kaufman in his play Beggar on Horseback (1924).

An unnamed, unspecified, or hypothetical manufactured good or product.
A component of a graphical user interface that the user interacts with.
A floating widget or other device inside a beer can, meant to create foam when opened
A small scraping tool consisting of a blade and a handle, commonly used to remove paint from glass and other smooth surfaces
The child of a gremlin (Roald Dahl - The Gremlins)
An object of fiction or obfuscation (Gigawidget)

unnamed, unspecified, or hypothetical manufactured good or product

component of a graphical user interface that the user interacts with

floating widget or other device inside a beer can

small scraping tool

Widget may refer to:

Widget (economics), a placeholder name for an object or, more specifically, a mechanical or other manufactured device
Widget (beer), a coil-like device placed in the bottom of cans and bottles of beer to aid in the generation of froth
Widget (comics), a character in Marvel Comics
Widget (TV series), a 1990s animated television series
Widget (law), an imaginary unit or thing used to demonstrate a point or concept; commonly used in law school materials and lectures
New York World Journal Tribune, a defunct newspaper

In computing, the term has become frequently used to refer to objects on a computer screen the user interacts with:

GUI widget, a component of a graphical user interface with which a user interacts.
Widget toolkit, a software library containing a collection of GUI widgets that collaborate when used in the construction of applications.
Widget engine, a software system for physically-inspired applets, third party items that can be embedded in a frame. These can be categorized as Web widgets, Desktop widgets and Mobile widgets as they can be embedded in a web page, desktop background, or a mobile phone respectively.