virtual memory

noun Computers.

1. a system whereby addressable memory is extended beyond main storage through the use of secondary storage managed by system software in such a way that programs can treat all of the designated storage as addressable main storage.

noun

1. a computer system in which the size of the memory is effectively increased by automatically transferring sections of a program from a large capacity backing store, such as a disk, into the smaller core memory as they are required

1. A memory management system in a computer that temporarily stores inactive parts of the content RAM on a disk, restoring it to RAM when quick access to it is needed. This allows software to operate as though the computer has more RAM than it actually does.