hard-wired

American  

[hahrd-wahyuhrd] / ˈhɑrdˈwaɪərd /

Or hardwired

adjective

1. Computers.

   1. built into a computer's hardware and thus not readily changed.

   2. (of a terminal) connected to a computer by a direct circuit rather than through a switching network.

2. (of electrical or electronic components) connected by hardwiring.

3. pertaining to or being an intrinsic and relatively unmodifiable behavior pattern.

   Every cricket has a hard-wired pattern of chirps.

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hard-wired British  

adjective

1. (of a circuit or instruction) permanently wired into a computer, replacing separate software

2. (of human behaviour) innate; not learned

   humans have a hard-wired ability for acquiring language

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Etymology

Origin of hard-wired

First recorded in 1970–75

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

hard-wired

Yet these survivors are so hard-wired to be fearful of their neighbors that Hig and Cima’s rusty, tentative flirtation takes place under the gaze of her daddy’s gun, a heck of a chaperone.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2026

And in a league hard-wired to drag down any team that inches too far ahead, anyone who resists the gravitational pull toward mediocrity has figured out how to beat the system.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026

She said she wanted people to remember "men can also be victims of domestic violence" and added: "As a culture we are hard-wired to believe domestic violence towards a man is impossible."

From BBC ● Sep. 5, 2025

They adapt immediately and robustly, suggesting for the first time that bats' brains are hard-wired with an ability to launch a Plan B in times of diminished hearing.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 25, 2024

Seabiscuit, like any prey animal, was hard-wired to bound forward at the whip’s brush over his hindquarters, a simulation of a predator’s grasp.

From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand