Did you know?
There’s a glitch in the etymology of glitch—it may come from the Yiddish glitsh, meaning “slippery place,” but that’s not certain. Print use of glitch referring to a brief unexpected surge of electrical current dates to the mid-20th century. Astronaut John Glenn, in his 1962 book Into Orbit, felt the need to explain the term to his readers: “Literally, a glitch is a spike or change in voltage in an electrical circuit which takes place when the circuit suddenly has a new load put on it.” Today, the word can be used of any minor malfunction or snag. If you’re a gamer you might even take advantage of a glitch that causes something unexpected, and sometimes beneficial, to happen in the game.
Examples of glitch in a Sentence
Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune, 5 Feb. 2026
The Kilpatricks are among a wave of families told the same thing following a computer glitch over the weekend, according to patient advocates and officials with the state Department of Community Health, which oversees Medicaid.
—Ariel Hart, AJC.com, 3 Feb. 2026
Hulu has been operating on an old tech platform from before Disney took over the former joint venture that was plagued with glitches during the live Oscar telecast last year.
—Nellie Andreeva, Deadline, 3 Feb. 2026
This prompted Gourault to investigate the epistemic and infrastructural systems that link a glitch in virtual representations to a real person’s death.
—Farren Fei Yuan, Artforum, 1 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for glitch
Cite this Entry
“Glitch.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/glitch. Accessed 14 Feb. 2026.
Copy CitationKids Definition
glitch
noun
