daemon

noun

dae·​mon

variant spelling of demon

1
a
: an evil spirit
angels and demons
b
: a source or agent of evil, harm, distress, or ruin
the demons of drug and alcohol addiction
confronting the demons of his childhood
2
usually daemon : an attendant (see attendant entry 2 sense 1) power or spirit : genius
3
usually daemon mythology : a supernatural being whose nature is intermediate between that of a god and that of a human being
4
: one that has exceptional enthusiasm, drive, or effectiveness
a demon for work
Doug, putting like a demon, had birdies on the third and sixth …Fred Tupper
5
daemon : a software program or process that runs in the background
A mailer daemon installed on an e-mail system can respond to a piece of incorrectly addressed e-mail by generating an automated message to the sender that the message was undeliverable.J. D. Biersdorfer

Examples of daemon in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web During the handshake, BPP keeps track of the number of messages exchanged between the client (typically operated by a remote admin) and the SSH daemon (the server app that facilitates the connection on the network). Dan Goodin, Ars Technica, 19 Dec. 2023 The daemon of the Father-President of the Magisterium (Will Keen, father of Dafne) is a lizard. John Anderson, WSJ, 22 Dec. 2022 And don't forget Fleabag's Phoebe Waller-Bridge will also voice the daemon of John Parry, played by Andrew Scott. Nick Romano, EW.com, 28 Aug. 2020 McAvoy's Asriel and his daemon were barely present in season 2, and even then didn't have any dialogue. Nick Romano, EW.com, 27 Sep. 2022 One of the most toxic couples on television at the moment is a woman and her monkey: Mrs. Coulter and her daemon in His Dark Materials. Nick Romano, EW.com, 5 Dec. 2022 The daemon is an extension of the individual. Nick Romano, EW.com, 15 Oct. 2020 The company is able to analyze and detect attacks by running a background program known as a daemon on every server in every data center. Beth Kindig, Forbes, 23 Dec. 2021 His Dark Materials season 1 introduced Dafne Keen as Lyra Belacqua, a young girl from a parallel world where a person's soul exists outside the body in the form of a talking animal companion called a daemon. Nick Romano, EW.com, 27 Sep. 2022

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'daemon.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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Cite this Entry

“Daemon.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/daemon. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

daemon

variant of demon

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