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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

hacker.

Someone who hacks.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/hækə/Received-Pronunciation/hækəɹ/General-American
  1. Someone who hacks.

    A hacker hacked into his computer account yesterday.
  2. Someone who hacks. One who cuts with heavy or rough blows.

  3. Someone who hacks. One who is inexperienced or unskilled at a particular activity, especially (sports, originally and chiefly golf), a sport such as golf or tennis.

    a tennis hacker
  4. Someone who hacks. One who is expert at programming and solving problems with a computer.

    dated
  5. Someone who hacks. One who is expert at programming and solving problems with a computer. One who applies a novel method, shortcut, skill, or trick to something to increase ease, efficiency, or productivity.

    broadly · dated
    food hacker
    growth hacker
  6. Someone who hacks. One who uses a computer to gain unauthorized access to data stored in, or to carry out malicious attacks on, computer networks or computer systems.

    a phone hacker
  7. Someone who hacks. Synonym of hackster (“a violent bully or ruffian; also, an assassin, a murderer”).

    obsolete
  8. Something that hacks; a device or tool for hacking; specifically, an axe used for cutting tree branches or wood.

  9. Something that hacks; a device or tool for hacking; specifically, an axe used for cutting tree branches or wood. A fork-shaped tool used to harvest root vegetables.

    UK · regional
Where this word comes from

From Late Middle English hackere, hakker, hakkere (“one who cuts wood, woodchopper, woodcutter; (rare) tool for cutting wood”), from hakken, hacke (“to cut (something) with a chopping action, hack; to make a chopping action”) + -er(e) (suffix forming agent nouns). Hakken is derived from Old English *haccian (“to hack”), from Proto-West Germanic *hakkōn (“to chop, hack”), from Proto-Germanic *hakkōną (“to chop, hack”), from Proto-Indo-European *keg-, *keng- (“to be sharp; a handle; a hook; a peg”). The English word may be analysed as hack (“to chop or cut down in a rough manner”) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns).

noun/hækə/Received-Pronunciation/hækəɹ/General-American
  1. One who operates a taxicab; a cabdriver.

    US
Where this word comes from

Possibly from hack(ney cab) (“carriage pulled by a hackney horse, or motorized vehicle, available for public hire”) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns).

verb/hækə/Received-Pronunciation/hækəɹ/General-American
  1. To speak with a spasmodic repetition of vocal sounds; to stammer, to stutter; also, to mumble and procrastinate in one's speech; to hem and haw.

    UK · archaic · dialectal · intransitive
Where this word comes from

From hack (“(obsolete) to confuse or mangle (words) when speaking”) + -er (suffix forming frequentative verbs).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.