DDoS

American  

[dee-daws, -dos, dee-dee-oh-es] / ˈdiˈdɔs, -ˈdɒs, ˈdiˈdiˌoʊˈɛs /

adjective

1. pertaining to or being an incident in which a network of computers floods an online resource with high levels of unwanted traffic so that it is inaccessible to legitimate service requests.

   a DDoS attack.

---

DDoS British  

abbreviation

1. distributed denial of service: a method of attacking a computer system by flooding it with so many messages that it is obliged to shut down

---

Etymology

Origin of DDoS

1995–2000; D(istributed) D(enial) o(f) S(ervice)

---

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

DDoS

When a DDoS attack happened, the Big Pipes wizards usually knew how the attack was being carried out and the software behind it.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 3, 2026

On March 19, federal authorities announced they’d disrupted four of the world’s largest DDoS botnets, including Kimwolf.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 3, 2026

"Limiting the number of legitimate users isn't an ordinary mitigation for DDoS attacks and wouldn't usually help... so Mr Musk's own statement suggests that the platform might have been struggling with overall listener capacity."

From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2024

A distributed denial of service attack - or DDoS for short - is an attempt to overload a website, which makes it hard to use or otherwise inaccessible..

From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2024

"Over the past period, more than 1,000 waves of DDoS attacks have been recorded against infrastructure in Russia that is specifically involved in the electoral process," Pamfilova was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.

From Barron's

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---