hard-wired
Americanadjective
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Computers.
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built into a computer's hardware and thus not readily changed.
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(of a terminal) connected to a computer by a direct circuit rather than through a switching network.
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(of electrical or electronic components) connected by hardwiring.
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pertaining to or being an intrinsic and relatively unmodifiable behavior pattern.
Every cricket has a hard-wired pattern of chirps.
adjective
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(of a circuit or instruction) permanently wired into a computer, replacing separate software
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(of human behaviour) innate; not learned
humans have a hard-wired ability for acquiring language
Etymology
Origin of hard-wired
First recorded in 1970–75
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
What the above incident taught me has become hard-wired.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 7, 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
“All of that is hard-wired into federal funding,” Scheppele said.
From Salon ● Mar. 1, 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
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
