hacker

C2+ Topic:People & Society

US /ˈhækɚ/ UK /ˈhakə/ See IPA manual

noun

Meanings

1

noun
a person who breaks into or skillfully manipulates computer systems

A hacker exposed the flaw before any data was stolen.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a person who breaks into or... cracker programmercyberpunkintruder

Word family

Related forms hack hacking

Etymology

From hack ('to cut roughly, chop', from Old English haccian 'to cut into pieces') + the agent suffix -er; the computing sense arose in 1960s MIT slang for an enthusiastic, ingenious programmer.

haccian Old English

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People & Society Word Formation & Derivatives

# hacker

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** ˈhækɚ
**IPA (UK):** ˈhakə

## Meanings
1. a person who breaks into or skillfully manipulates computer systems

## Examples
- A hacker exposed the flaw before any data was stolen.

## Synonyms
- cracker
- programmer
- cyberpunk
- intruder

## Related Forms
- hack
- hacking

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: haccian

## Etymology
From hack ('to cut roughly, chop', from Old English haccian 'to cut into pieces') + the agent suffix -er; the computing sense arose in 1960s MIT slang for an enthusiastic, ingenious programmer.

## AI Etymology
hacker comes from hack ('to cut roughly, chop', from Old English haccian 'to cut into pieces') + the agent suffix -er; the computing sense arose in 1960s MIT slang for an enthusiastic, ingenious programmer. Morphologically, the ending is part of the etymology: the suffix is attached to the older base named in the history, producing a later English derivative. In present English, the noun sense is "a person who breaks into or skillfully manipulates computer systems", so the historical development ends in a clearly identifiable modern dictionary use. The same base also appears in related forms such as hack and hacking. Its semantic neighborhood includes cracker, programmer, cyberpunk, and intruder, which helps locate the modern sense without adding a separate etymological claim. The named historical forms include Old English haccian.

## Topics
- People & Society
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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