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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
Margaret Coker, ProPublica, 19 Feb. 2025
Does that seem like some weird, random voting glitch to you?
—Jayson Stark, The Athletic, 14 Feb. 2025
In the months after Twitter shut down the data center nearly overnight, the platform suffered numerous major outages and technical glitches.
—Clare Duffy, CNN, 5 Feb. 2025
The love, the glitches, the sweat, the tears, the laughter and, and, and.
—Tommy McArdle, People.com, 3 Feb. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Glitch.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/glitch. Accessed 3 Mar. 2025.
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glitch
noun
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