What does hacked mean?
Hacked is the past tense and past participle of hack and also functions as an adjective. Its dominant modern sense is to describe a computer account, system, website, or piece of software that has been accessed or altered without authorization. This usage often carries a security implication, although “hacked together” can be relatively harmless, meaning quickly assembled or modified in an improvised way. In nontechnical contexts, “hacked” may mean roughly chopped, as in hacked garlic, or describe prolonged hard work in expressions such as “hacked away at.” The word is informal or jocular in many of these uses, while reports of a compromised system are generally straightforward. Its history links everyday cutting and chopping with later technical slang for improvised programming and unauthorized computer access. Understanding both the security sense and the older literal sense explains why “hacked” can sound alarming in one context but merely colorful or humorous in another.
To gain unauthorized access to or alter a computer system, account, program, or website; to assemble or modify something quickly and improvisingly; or to cut something roughly with a blade.
"The attacker hacked the server through a vulnerable application."
The computing sense can be technical, informal, or jocular depending on context. The literal cutting sense is especially common in culinary descriptions such as 'hacked onions.'
Describing software, an account, a system, a website, or a version that has been accessed or altered without authorization, or that has been quickly and improvisingly assembled.
"The site displayed a warning that its database had been hacked."
In the computing sense, hacked commonly implies unauthorized access, though it may also emphasize an improvised or crude modification.
A word once associated with rough chopping now helps label a major security breach.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does hacked come from?
The word descends from Old English haccan, meaning to cut, chop, or hack with rough, irregular strokes. Modern computing senses developed through later technical slang: first for improvised or clever programming practices and subsequently for gaining unauthorized access to computer systems. The English word is related to cognates such as German hacken, meaning to chop or hack, while hacksaw combines the same verb with saw.
How hacked is actually used
The computing sense often suggests a security breach, but it can be jocular when describing quick, improvised modifications. The culinary sense, as in 'hacked garlic,' is informal, while 'hacked away at' is an informal idiom meaning to work persistently.
Easily confused with hacked
Hack can name the act of cutting, improvising, or gaining computer access, while hacked normally describes the completed action or the resulting compromised or altered object.