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
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
From government warnings as hackers target passwords and 2FA codes to use in their extortion attacks, one ransomware campaign dropping zero-days, and researchers indicating a 5,365 ransomware attack rampage.
—
Davey Winder, Forbes.com, 9 May 2025
What emerges is a portrait of the artist as an itinerant hacker, and a snapshot of digital creation in the years before social media or the advent of the cloud.
—Kyle Chayka, New Yorker, 7 May 2025
The fewer functions a device has exposed, the fewer opportunities a hacker has to exploit it.
—Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 6 May 2025
In February, hackers backed by the North Korean government stole $1.5 billion in cryptocurrencies from the crypto exchange Bybit, as part of a larger continuing effort to steal crypto funds from around the world.
—Andrew R. Chow, Time, 6 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for hacker
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Davey Winder, Forbes.com, 9 May 2025
What emerges is a portrait of the artist as an itinerant hacker, and a snapshot of digital creation in the years before social media or the advent of the cloud.
—Kyle Chayka, New Yorker, 7 May 2025
The fewer functions a device has exposed, the fewer opportunities a hacker has to exploit it.
—Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 6 May 2025
In February, hackers backed by the North Korean government stole $1.5 billion in cryptocurrencies from the crypto exchange Bybit, as part of a larger continuing effort to steal crypto funds from around the world.
—Andrew R. Chow, Time, 6 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for hacker
Cite this Entry
“Hacker.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hacker. Accessed 14 May. 2025.
Copy CitationKids 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
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