cyberpunk

noun

cy·​ber·​punk ˈsī-bər-ˌpəŋk 

1

: science fiction dealing with future urban societies dominated by computer technology

2

: an opportunistic computer hacker

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Cyberpunk and Literature

In science fiction circles, "cyberpunk" is a genre that often features countercultural antiheroes trapped in a dehumanizing high-tech future. Its roots extend back to the technical fiction of the 1940s and '50s, but it was years before it matured. The word cyberpunk was coined by writer Bruce Bethke, who wrote a story with that title in 1980. He created the term by combining "cybernetics," the science of replacing human functions with computerized ones, and "punk," the raucous music and nihilistic sensibility that became a youth culture in the 1970s and '80s. Not until the 1984 publication of William Gibson's novel, Neuromancer, however, did "cyberpunk" really take off as a term or a genre.

Synonyms

• cracker
• hacker

Examples of cyberpunk in a Sentence

the bank had to overhaul its online banking system after a cyberpunk broke into the accounts of thousands of customers

Recent Examples on the Web

An action movie that featured multiple philosophical threads and a combination of religious imagery from both the East and West, all set in a dystopian future and dotted with cyberpunk jargon did not make for the most executive-pleasing project. —Jordan Runtagh, Peoplemag, 31 Mar. 2024

The project began after the two watched David Cronenberg’s 1983 sci-fi film Videodrome and were inspired by the film’s cyberpunk aesthetics; the album demos were just synths and drum machines. —Philip Sherburne, Pitchfork, 5 Mar. 2024

An assassin who attacks Adam at a gas station is outfitted in a cyberpunk ensemble; another is a feral Aussie with huge mutton chops. —Katie Walsh, Los Angeles Times, 11 Jan. 2024

Its styling is wild and weird and wonderful, a medley of organic forms bisected by creases and LED lighting to form what looks like a cyberpunk canvas. —Daniel Golson, The Verge, 27 Oct. 2023

The car silently and accurately slinks around curves, with the precision of sci-fi cyberpunk killer snake assassin. —Rob Verger, Popular Science, 9 Aug. 2023

Her songs draw on the cyberpunk heroism celebrated in our pages and pixels. —WIRED, 8 Aug. 2023

AIs, a man with the dead LK CEO’s memories, and brain implants shape this dizzyingly subversive cyberpunk thriller. —Charlie Jane Anders, Washington Post, 18 July 2023

For the record, each model had crimped blonde cyberpunk hair, deep red lips, intense stares and stomps. —Tara Gonzalez, Harper's BAZAAR, 27 June 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1983, in the meaning defined at sense 1

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