So they were the differences and these are some definitions. Software: Software is a collection of programs that co-ordinates with the hardware to run the machine. It is set of instructions or data that operates the computer how to work. Software is opposite of the physical aspect, i.e., hardware and it is a complement to the hardware in computer. Application: Application is package that performs a specific task for end users. It is a product or a program that is designed only for end users requirements. All the applications may be in category of software but vice-versa is not possible. I hope it helps.

Software is a set of instructions or data that operates the hardware. Application is a package to perform a specific task. Software is an all encompassing term for computer data. Application is a type of software that does a certain task. Software may executable or may not be. Application is always executable. Software is not often operating system based. Application is operation system based. Software does not need user interaction for functioning. Application need user interaction for functioning. Software is used as mediator between user and hardware. Application is used only by end users. All the software are not applications. All the application are software. I hope it helps, Lydia :)

They are both computer code. An application is a piece of software. Not every piece of software is an application. An operating system is the obvious example of a piece of software that is not an application. "An application" is a piece of computer code that does some particular useful job, such a spreadsheet, a word processor, or a game. Historically, "application" was used like the word "applied" in the terms "pure and applied math." Pure math is math for its own sake. ("Every map can be colored with four colors.") Applied math is the use of math to solve a problem. When you use a computer to solve a problem you "apply" it to the problem. (A game is an application that solves the problem of entertaining yourself.) Strictly speaking, an operating system doesn't do anything useful by itself. All Windows does by itself is to boot up and show you a desktop. (Customarily, operating systems "come with" free applications like Notepad or a web browser, but they are not really part of the OS). Outside of the computer world, "ware" means "something offered for sale," and "hardware" means things like nails or buckets or wheelbarrows. In computers, it is the physical device. When people bought computers in the 1950s they had to pay separately for the hardware and the operating system. The word "software" was coined in the 1950s as a joking way of saying "things you pay for that are not hardware." It is "soft" because it is not physical and because it can be changed. Load a new set of software into a Windows machine, and it becomes a Linux machine.