glitch
/ˈɡlɪt͡ʃ/
glitch noun: a problem affecting function.
Noun
glitch (countable and uncountable, plural glitches)
- A problem affecting function.
- They are still trying to work out all the glitches.
- Glitches—a spaceman’s word for irritating disturbances.1965, Time magazine
- Synonyms:
- bug, hitch, imperfection, quirk, gremlin
- An unexpected behavior in an electrical signal, especially if the signal spontaneously returns to expected behavior after a period of time.
- Another term we adopted to describe some of our problems was "glitch." 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. You have probably noticed a dimming of lights in your home when you turn a switch...1962, John Glenn, Into Orbit, London: Cassell
- A bug or an exploit.
- Performing this glitch gives you extra lives.
- How to reach 8.555 ー The glitch
You need to have Wrex alive and sabotage the cure. Without the glitch, Wrex will discover the lie and try to kill you after Priority: Citadel II when you try to go back to the Normandy. Triggering this scene will remove Wrex and the Clan Urdnot in the war assets...2021 September 4, Paarnahkrin, “8.550 War Assets - How to achieve the highest possible score”, in Steam Community, archived from the original on 07 Dec 2021, Paarnahkrin's Guides
- A genre of experimental electronic music since the 1990s, characterized by a deliberate use of sonic artifacts that would normally be viewed as unwanted noise.
- You can hear this in the contemporary genre of ‘glitch’, where artists like Oval and Fennesz make radically beautiful music using the snaps, crackles and pops emitted by damaged CDs, malfunctioning software, etc.2011, Simon Reynolds, Bring the Noise: 20 Years of Writing About Hip Rock and Hip Hop, Soft Skull Press, →ISBN, page 313
- A sudden increase in the rotational frequency of a pulsar.
Verb
glitch (third-person singular simple present glitches, present participle glitching, simple past and past participle glitched)
- To experience an unexpected, typically intermittent malfunction.
- My computer keeps glitching; every couple of hours it just reboots without warning.
- Jake’s parents, played unnervingly well by Colette and Thewlis, are like alien robots who have been programmed to behave like human beings, but keep glitching.2020 September 1, Nicholas Barber, “Five stars for I'm Thinking of Ending Things”, in BBC
- To perform an exploit or recreate a bug while playing a video game.
- His character will glitch into the wall and out of the level.
glitch meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Telugu and Persian
glitch in Tamil
- தடுமாற்றம், குறை, தவற்றை ஏற்படுத்தும் நிகழ்வு, பிழை, குறுநேர அலைவு மாற்றம்
glitch in Urdu
- نقص
glitch in Telugu
- గ్లిచ్
glitch in Persian
- video games: bug or exploit
- گلیچ gelič
Examples of glitch in a sentence
- A déjà vu is usually a glitch in the Matrix.1999, The Wachowski Brothers, The Matrix (motion picture), spoken by Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss):
- The glitch only added fuel to online sympathizers' outrage.2021 July 20, Masayuki Yuda, “Foodpanda faces backlash after calling Thai protest 'terrorism'”, in Nikkei Asia, Nikkei Inc, retrieved 20...
Synonyms of glitch
Forms of glitch
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | glitches |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | glitches |
| present participle | glitching |
| past participle | glitched |
| past | glitched |
Origin of glitch
Probably borrowed from Yiddish גליטש (glitsh), from German glitschig (“slippy”), from glitschen (“to slide, glide, slip”) + -ig (“-y”). Related to gleiten (“glide”). Cognate with French glisser (“to slip, slide, skid”). Popularized in the 1960s, by the US space program. Attested in 1962 by American astronaut John Glenn, in reference to spikes in electrical current.
Words formed from glitch
Phrases with glitch
Words that rhyme with glitch
25 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about glitch
- What does glitch mean?
- Glitch means a problem affecting function.
- What is glitch in Tamil?
- Glitch in Tamil is தடுமாற்றம், குறை, தவற்றை ஏற்படுத்தும் நிகழ்வு. See Glitch meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use glitch in a sentence?
- A déjà vu is usually a glitch in the Matrix.
- What part of speech is glitch?
- Glitch can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce glitch?
- Glitch is pronounced /ˈɡlɪt͡ʃ/.
- What is the plural of glitch?
- The plural of glitch is glitches.
Words near glitch in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: glitch (page history and authors); glitch (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); glitch (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); glitch (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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)-Vealhurl-glitch.wav.
Cite this entry: “glitch.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/glitch. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.