hacker

noun

hack·​er ˈha-kər 

1

: one that hacks

2

: a person who is inexperienced or unskilled at a particular activity

a tennis hacker

3

: an expert at programming and solving problems with a computer

4

: a person who illegally gains access to and sometimes tampers with information in a computer system

Synonyms of hacker

• cracker
• cyberpunk
• geek

Examples of hacker in a Sentence

My friends and I have been playing golf for years, but we're still just a bunch of hackers.

the company's security experts spent days trying to figure out how a hacker could have gotten past the firewall

Recent Examples on the Web

That pattern brings us to Harvard's newest incident, which exposed a database of alumni, donors, some students and faculty to hackers. —Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 7 Dec. 2025

Good luck to any hacker trying to get through Surfshark's rigorous security measures. —Chris McMullen, Space.com, 28 Nov. 2025

After detecting the operation in mid-September and conducting its own assessment, Anthropic concluded that hackers affiliated with the People’s Republic of China exploited the company’s Claude Code to commit the cyberattack. —David Zimmermann, The Washington Examiner, 27 Nov. 2025

This comes after Chinese hackers earlier this month were suspected of using Anthropic’s AI coding tool to breach dozens of organizations, including tech companies and government agencies. —John Kell, Fortune, 26 Nov. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for hacker

• acker
• backer
• blacker
• cracker
• lacquer
• packer
• slacker
• stacker
• thacker
• tracker
• attacker
• backpacker

Kids Definition

hacker

noun

hack·​er ˈhak-ər 

1

: one that hacks

2

: a person who is unskilled at a particular activity

3

: an expert at programming and solving problems with a computer

4

: a person who illegally gains access to a computer system