Word.ws English Dictionary

cheat code

cheat code noun: a line of text or series of commands which can be used to change a game's behavior, alter a character's looks and abilities, skip levels, or access other hidden features.

Noun

cheat code (plural cheat codes)

  1. A line of text or series of commands which can be used to change a game's behavior, alter a character's looks and abilities, skip levels, or access other hidden features.
    • Got more patience than a tree grow / Got love that feels like a cheat code2023, “Practice”, in Water Made Us, performed by Jamila Woods ft. Saba
  2. (figuratively) A way to accomplish something that bypasses some of the usual hard work; shortcut, lifehack, or advantage.
    • Once you discover all the ins and outs of your mind, you basically have the cheat code to your game of life.2017, Lilly Singh, How to Be a Bawse, A Guide to Conquering Life
    • How did the other folks make it? It’s not necessarily because they’re smarter. It’s not automatically that they know more than I do. It’s not because they’re more clever. It’s that they found the cheat codes or knew somebody who knew somebody.2021, Luvvie Ajayi Jones, “Trust Where You Are”, in The Fear-Fighter Manual: Lessons from a Professional Troublemaker, London: Quercus Editions Ltd, →ISBN

Examples of cheat code in a sentence

  • This gem of a book is a gathering of life’s cheat codes, put together with girls in mind.2021, Suzie Lavington, Andy Cope, A Girl’s Guide to Being Fearless: How to Find Your Brave, Chichester, West Sussex: Capstone, Wiley...
  • Global agreements also focus on technology sharing—think of it as countries passing around the best cheat codes for fighting climate change.2024, Alisha Chandran, “Global Agreements – A Game of Diplomacy”, in Beyond the Forecast: The Science, Impact, and Opportunity of Our...

Forms of cheat code

pluralcheat codes
alternative formcheatcode

Questions about cheat code

What does cheat code mean?
Cheat code means a line of text or series of commands which can be used to change a game's behavior, alter a character's looks and abilities, skip levels, or access other hidden features.
How do you use cheat code in a sentence?
This gem of a book is a gathering of life’s cheat codes, put together with girls in mind.
What part of speech is cheat code?
Cheat code is a noun.
What is the plural of cheat code?
The plural of cheat code is cheat codes.

Words near cheat code in the dictionary

  1. chears
  2. Cheas
  3. Cheaster
  4. Cheasters
  5. cheat
  6. cheat code
  7. cheat codes
  8. cheat curl
  9. cheat curls
  10. cheat day
  11. cheat days

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cheat code (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-cheat code.wav.

Cite this entry: “cheat code.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cheat_code. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.