Word.ws English Dictionary

Ctrl-Alt-Delete

Ctrl-Alt-Delete noun: the simultaneous key combination of Ctrl, Alt, and Delete.

Noun

Ctrl-Alt-Delete (uncountable)

  1. The simultaneous key combination of Ctrl, Alt, and Delete.
    • Press Ctrl-Alt-Delete to reboot.

Interjection

  1. (humorous, sometimes) Said by a sentient machine to express the desire to kill or destroy something or someone.

Verb

Ctrl-Alt-Delete (third-person singular simple present Ctrl-Alt-Deletes, present participle Ctrl-Alt-Deleting, simple past and past participle Ctrl-Alt-Deleted)

  1. (intransitive, transitive, literal) To press Ctrl, Alt, and Delete simultaneously to restart.
  2. (figuratively, intransitive, transitive) To reset.

Forms of Ctrl-Alt-Delete

Noun
alternative formCtrl-Alt-Del
alternative formCtrl+Alt+Del
alternative formControl-Alt-Delete
alternative formControl+Alt+Delete
alternative formctrl-alt-delete
Verb
third-person singular presentCtrl-Alt-Deletes
present participleCtrl-Alt-Deleting
past participleCtrl-Alt-Deleted
pastCtrl-Alt-Deleted

Origin of Ctrl-Alt-Delete

Key combination of Ctrl, Alt and Delete. In many computer systems, this interrupts or shuts down the system or some part of it or opens up a shut-down menu.

Questions about Ctrl-Alt-Delete

What does Ctrl-Alt-Delete mean?
Ctrl-Alt-Delete means the simultaneous key combination of Ctrl, Alt, and Delete.
What part of speech is Ctrl-Alt-Delete?
Ctrl-Alt-Delete can be a noun, an interjection or a verb.

Words near Ctrl-Alt-Delete in the dictionary

  1. CTPs
  2. CTPSE
  3. ctr
  4. ctr.
  5. ctrl
  6. Ctrl-Alt-Delete
  7. Ctrl-Alt-Deleted
  8. Ctrl-Alt-Deletes
  9. Ctrl-Alt-Deleting
  10. ctrl-c
  11. ctrl-c'ed

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Ctrl-Alt-Delete (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-Ctrl-Alt-Delete.wav.

Cite this entry: “Ctrl-Alt-Delete.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ctrl-alt-delete. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.