a screen-oriented interactive program enabling a user to lay out financial data on the screen
"The accountant used a spreadsheet to organize and analyze the monthly sales figures directly on her monitor."
A sheet of paper, marked with a grid, in which financial data is recorded and totals calculated manually.
"The accountant used an old spreadsheet to manually record expenses and calculate monthly totals before the computer system was installed."
In plain English: A spreadsheet is a computer program that lets you organize data into rows and columns to do math easily.
"The accountant used a spreadsheet to organize all of the company's quarterly expenses."
Usage: A spreadsheet refers to the digital software application used for organizing data into rows and columns rather than a physical piece of paper. You typically use this tool when you need to perform automatic calculations on large sets of numbers that would be tedious to manage manually.
To model or compute by means of a spreadsheet.
"The accountant used a spreadsheet to model the company's quarterly budget and project future cash flow."
In plain English: To spreadsheet something means to arrange data into rows and columns on a computer program for easy calculation and organization.
"The accountant decided to spreadsheet all the project expenses into separate categories for easier tracking."
The word spreadsheet is a straightforward combination of the words spread and sheet. It was first used to describe a table where data is laid out across columns and rows on a piece of paper or screen.