hacker

noun

hack·​er ˈha-kər How to pronounce hacker (audio)
1
: one that hacks
2
: a person who is inexperienced or unskilled at a particular activity
a tennis hacker
3
: an expert at programming and solving problems with a computer
4
: a person who illegally gains access to and sometimes tampers with information in a computer system

Examples of hacker in a Sentence

My friends and I have been playing golf for years, but we're still just a bunch of hackers. the company's security experts spent days trying to figure out how a hacker could have gotten past the firewall
Recent Examples on the Web While several hacker groups have claimed responsibility for the outage, history shows that these types of service disruptions are rarely the work of nefarious actors. Amanda Hoover, WIRED, 5 Mar. 2024 Compounding the impact, thousands of organizations cut off Change Health from their systems to ensure the hackers did not infect their networks as well. Democrat-Gazette Staff and Wire Reports, arkansasonline.com, 2 Mar. 2024 Reuters was unable to reach the hackers or verify any of their claims. Amrita Khalid, The Verge, 1 Mar. 2024 The post from hackers has since been removed, and multiple outlets reported it was flagged by the platform’s community notes, indicating the link was fraudulent. Brian Bushard, Forbes, 27 Feb. 2024 Webb works as a sitter for the safe house where the CIA had stashed black hat hacker Alexander Renard (Harold Nieves Fisch), who had an extremely gorgeous head of hair and is now extremely dead on Palmer’s (Brian Dietzen) autopsy table. EW.com, 26 Feb. 2024 Executives consider cyber attacks the top threat to their companies, and artificial intelligence only exacerbates the risk by helping hackers infiltrate computer systems more quickly and more effectively. Rachyl Jones, Fortune, 22 Feb. 2024 Weeks later, the U.S. Justice Department unsealed an indictment which charged Mr. Assange with 18 counts of violating the Espionage Act, by participating in a criminal hacking conspiracy and by encouraging hackers to steal secret material. Megan Specia, New York Times, 20 Feb. 2024 In its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, UnitedHealth said its cyberattack could have been sponsored by a group of hackers paid by a foreign country. David Goldman, CNN, 23 Feb. 2024

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

Word History

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of hacker was in the 14th century

Dictionary Entries Near hacker

Cite this Entry

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

Kids Definition

hacker

noun
hack·​er ˈhak-ər How to pronounce hacker (audio)
1
: one that hacks
2
: a person who is unskilled at a particular activity
3
: an expert at programming and solving problems with a computer
4
: a person who illegally gains access to a computer system

More from Merriam-Webster on hacker

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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