下载(xià zài) - to download in Mandarin

下载 (xiàzài) means "to download", built from 下 (xià, down) and 载 (zài, to load, to carry). Picture data being loaded down from a server onto your device and the meaning follows directly.

Its opposite is 上载 (shàngzài), "to upload", though in casual speech many people actually say 上传 (shàngchuán) for "upload" instead, while keeping 下载 (xiàzài) as the standard word for "download" on both sides.

Watch the reading of 载: here it is zài (fourth tone, "to carry, to load"), not the zǎi (third tone) you meet in 记载 (jìzǎi, to record); mixing the two tones up is a very common learner slip.