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rubber duck debugging

rubber duck debugging noun: the practice in which a programmer attempts to solve a bug by explaining their code to an inanimate object, such as a rubber duck.

Noun

rubber duck debugging (uncountable)

  1. The practice in which a programmer attempts to solve a bug by explaining their code to an inanimate object, such as a rubber duck.
    Synonyms:
    rubber ducking

Synonyms of rubber duck debugging

Origin of rubber duck debugging

From a story in the book The Pragmatic Programmer (1999).

Questions about rubber duck debugging

What does rubber duck debugging mean?
Rubber duck debugging means the practice in which a programmer attempts to solve a bug by explaining their code to an inanimate object, such as a rubber duck.
What part of speech is rubber duck debugging?
Rubber duck debugging is a noun.

Words near rubber duck debugging in the dictionary

  1. rubber chicken
  2. rubber chickens
  3. rubber diaper
  4. rubber diapers
  5. rubber duck
  6. rubber duck debugging
  7. rubber ducked
  8. rubber duckie
  9. rubber duckies
  10. rubber ducking
  11. rubber ducks

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rubber duck debugging (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.

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