daemon

noun

dae·​mon

variant spelling of demon

1

a

: an evil spirit

angels and demons

b

: a source or agent of evil, harm, distress, or ruin

the demons of drug and alcohol addiction

confronting the demons of his childhood

2

usually daemon : an attendant (see attendant entry 2 sense 1) power or spirit : genius

3

usually daemon mythology : a supernatural being whose nature is intermediate between that of a god and that of a human being

4

: one that has exceptional enthusiasm, drive, or effectiveness

a demon for work

Doug, putting like a demon, had birdies on the third and sixth …

—Fred Tupper

5

daemon : a software program or process that runs in the background

A mailer daemon installed on an e-mail system can respond to a piece of incorrectly addressed e-mail by generating an automated message to the sender that the message was undeliverable.

—J. D. Biersdorfer

Examples of daemon in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Again, a lot of this is going to be interface design, with the glasses basically delivering image and sound to the user, or taking the user’s image and sound, and delivering it back to the phone, like a courier daemon. — John Werner, Forbes.com, 21 Apr. 2026

Chief among these features is Kairos, a persistent daemon that can operate in the background even when the Claude Code terminal window is closed. — ArsTechnica, 1 Apr. 2026

Aeacus, a judge of the dead, and Thanatos, winged daemon of death, are chthonic. — Lewis Hyde, Harpers Magazine, 18 June 2025

The computer daemon operates in a similar manner, continuously working behind the scenes to keep processes going and to address service requests. — The Editors, JSTOR Daily, 23 Oct. 2024

Yet in their original form gremlins are alive and well, living under new names—daemons, worms, virtual pets. — The Editors, JSTOR Daily, 23 Oct. 2024

During the handshake, BPP keeps track of the number of messages exchanged between the client (typically operated by a remote admin) and the SSH daemon (the server app that facilitates the connection on the network). — Dan Goodin, Ars Technica, 19 Dec. 2023

The daemon of the Father-President of the Magisterium (Will Keen, father of Dafne) is a lizard. — John Anderson, WSJ, 22 Dec. 2022

Rhymes for daemon

• beeman
• demon
• leman
• niemann
• seaman
• seamen
• semen

Kids Definition

daemon

variant of demon