Word of the Day

: August 25, 2019

kludge

noun KLOOJ

What It Means

: a haphazard or makeshift solution to a problem and especially to a computer or programming problem

kludge in Context

Andy knocked out a hasty kludge to circumvent the buggy code until a more robust solution could be developed.

"When the theatre was built in and opened in 1920, there were no concessions of any kind. Everything that we've done to accommodate modern audiences was a kludge in various ways." — Curtis McCrary, quoted in The Tucson (Arizona) Weekly, 25 Oct. 2018

Did You Know?

The first recorded use of the word kludge is attributed to Jackson W. Granholm, who defined the word in a 1962 issue of the magazine Datamation as "an ill-assorted collection of poorly-matching parts, forming a distressing whole." He further explained that it was derived from the German word klug, meaning "smart" or "witty." Why Granholm included a d in his spelling is not known. What we do know is that speakers of American English have agreed to disregard it in pronunciation, making the vowel pronunciation of kludge reflective of the pronunciation of German klug (\KLOOK\ ). We can also tell you that not everyone agrees with Granholm on the "d" matter: the spelling kluge is also popularly used.