DEFCON

American  

[def-kon] / ˈdɛf kɒn /

noun

1. any of several alert statuses for U.S. military forces, ranked numerically from normal, 5, to maximum readiness, 1.

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Etymology

Origin of DEFCON

def(ense readiness) con(dition)

Example Sentences

The since-deleted tweet seemed to refer to the United States’ military readiness condition scale known as DEFCON.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 10, 2022

That’s an apparent reference to the U.S. military readiness condition scale known as DEFCON.

From Seattle Times • Oct. 9, 2022

In August at DEFCON, the annual hackers’ convention in Las Vegas, J. Alex Halderman, a professor of computer science and an expert in cybersecurity, brought along several of his Diebold Accuvote TSX voting machines.

From Slate • Oct. 10, 2018

Everyone who’s ever attended DEFCON, the largest hacker conference in North America, has been warned not to connect to the hotel wifi and to bring burner devices to the conference.

From The Verge • Dec. 21, 2017

More importantly, they possessed DEFCON, a program which mapped out uncharted networks and scanned for accounts on systems within them.

From Underground by Dreyfus, Suelette