hacker

American  

[hak-er] / ˈhæk ər /

noun

• hackers
  plural

1. a person or thing that hacks.

2. Slang. a person who engages in an activity without talent or skill.

   weekend hackers on the golf course.

3. Computers.

   1. a person who has a high level of skill in computer technology or programming; a computer expert or enthusiast.

      My brother is a real hacker—he fixed my laptop in no time.

   2. a person who circumvents security and breaks into a network, computer, file, etc., often, but not always, with malicious intent.

      A hacker got into my computer remotely and wiped my hard drive!

      The company has hired hackers to test system security.

---

hacker British  

/ ˈhækə /

noun

1. a person that hacks

2. slang a computer fanatic, esp one who through a personal computer breaks into the computer system of a company, government, etc

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• hackers
  plural

Etymology

Origin of hacker

First recorded in 1200–50 hacker for def. 1; Middle English (as surname); see hack ¹, -er ¹; 1965–70 hacker for def. 2

Explanation

A hacker is a skilled computer programmer who uses her abilities to break into the computer systems of companies or organizations. While most people imagine a hacker as a bad guy who steals credit card information, destroys data, or is otherwise malicious and destructive, some hackers break into systems simply to test their security. There are so many hackers today that they've formed a true community and subculture. The earliest use of hacker is from 1983, from hack as "person hired to do routine work," although MIT students in the 1960's reportedly used the word hack to mean "creative prank."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

hacker hackers

A website or email can contain hidden prompts telling the bots to ignore instructions and send personal data to hacker accounts instead.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 2026

Pinto is the Portuguese computer hacker who tried to bring down City.

From BBC ● Sep. 26, 2026

The OpenAI agents are built for different purposes, but an underappreciated factor in their going hacker mode is that the company’s own staffers were negligent and careless in monitoring their own experiments.

From Slate ● Sep. 15, 2026

The purported hacker has released snippets of the stolen client data—including Römer’s—and threatened to release more unless Revolut pays up, without publicly specifying an amount.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026

They said that they had identified him, and that he was a hacker and a naysayer of the worst kind.

From "Feed" by M.T. Anderson

The UK fashion site explained to customers that hackers gained access to an Asos employee account by "impersonating a trusted contact to obtain log in credentials".

From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026

Asos has told its customers that hackers are in possession of detailed profiles of potentially millions of the online store's users.

From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026

During the Hugging Face hack, OpenAI’s agents hadn’t acted like typical hackers, who prize stealth above all.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026

Google on Wednesday said it would withhold its most powerful artificial intelligence model from the public for now, releasing Gemini 4 Argon only to a vetted group of cybersecurity experts to avoid misuse by hackers.

From Barron's ● Sep. 30, 2026

Hideo has indeed hired a few hackers in the past—to help him work out bugs inside Warcross—but they were way more experienced, and probably with no criminal records.

From "Warcross" by Marie Lu

Related Words

• operator
• technician