Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A minor malfunction, mishap, or technical problem; a snag: a computer glitch; a navigational glitch; a glitch in the negotiations.
- n. A false or spurious electronic signal caused by a brief, unwanted surge of electric power.
- n. Astronomy A sudden change in the period of rotation of a neutron star.
Wiktionary
- n. A problem affecting function; a bug; an imperfection; a quirk
- n. video games A bug or an exploit.
- n. music A genre of experimental electronic music of the 1990s, characterized by a deliberate use of sonic artifacts that would normally be viewed as unwanted noise.
- v. To experience an intermittent, unexpected, malfunction
- v. video games To perform an exploit or recreate a bug while playing a video game.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A fault or defect in a system, plan, or machine.
- n. (Elect.) A brief surge or interruption in the voltage in an electrical circuit or device.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a fault or defect in a computer program, system, or machine
Etymologies
- Probably from Yiddish גליטש (glitsch), from dialectical German glitschig ("slippy"), from glitsch ("slide, glide, slip") + -ig ("-y"). Related to gleiten ("glide"). (Wiktionary)
- Probably from Yiddish glitsh, a slip, lapse, from glitshn, to slip, from Middle High German glitschen, alteration of glīten, to glide, from Old High German glītan. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Although the OED states that the etymology of "glitch" is unknown, it probably comes from the Yiddish glitsh”
“Usually, news of the fault spreads like wildfire, and huge queues build up until the glitch is put right or the machine runs out of notes.”
The Guardian: Phantom cash machine withdrawals can haunt consumers
“The glitch is obviously ridiculous as a cover story, but I can't quite believe Amazon "caved in" to demands of some Focus in the Family type group either.”
“A computer glitch is the apparent cause of the commuter train wreck in D.C. The president talked about health care on ABC last night and got some tough questions.”
“In “Allison”, what in fact was happening – although the writers tried mightily to keep it ambiguous – was fairly obvious: her glitch from the car bomb caused her to crosslink her self-awareness with her memories of the woman she was modeled after, and then channel those memories through her human emulation mode.”
Matthew Yglesias » Spitzer: Let’s Condemn the Human Race to Slavery and Extinction
“My only glitch is that I also have a Mac, and while InfoSelect works just fine under VMWare, it would be nice to have a native Mac version.”
“The only glitch is that after you get your FM-3 you must enter Mexico within a certain time period.”
“Oh. Well, surely this membership glitch is an anomaly in the glorious track record of transnational non-governmental organizations, which responsible nations are actively correcting:”
“The only glitch is when gladinet loads at work, sometimes it leaves a ghost tab in my task bar.”
Gladinet Web Storage Manager Reaches Release Candidate | Lifehacker Australia
“The only glitch is when you have a short post, it will say “Click to read more” anyway.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘glitch’.
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Yiddishkeit
There are a few short lists of Yiddish words, but none appropriate to the glory of the language, and none that are open. Thought I'd start one, and would love contributions. I'm tagging as I go, an...
schmuck, nosh, chutzpah, shtick, kvetch, oy vey, oy gevalt, shvitz, shtik, shiksa, putz, mensch and 94 more...
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understatements
certain words seem given to usage in understatement, as pat phrases, by the mechanism of cliché; others because restraint, moderation or ambiguity are implicit in the words' definitions; and others...
no love lost, a minor inconveni..., that could have g..., he chose poorly, crossing the stre..., I've got a feelin..., slight miscalcula..., oh bother, not amused, no fun, a bit much, a little under th... and 55 more...
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The List That Broke The Internet
In this list I, and anyone who may whant to contribute, will make a list of words and phrases that somehow relate or translate to the destructuion the internet.
glitch, bug, virus, y2k, typos, destroy (well, th..., the listing power..., cancer, crash, destruction!!!, destroysion, boomys! and 3 more...
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ChortleGiggleSnort
Significant Words- Guiding you on your path to Snazzibility
flimsy, feeble, ranting, ramble, narky, snazzy, yoghurt, bulbous, pustule, globulous, geranium, megalomaniac and 521 more...
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Morthalion's Words
supercilious, kvetch, kvass, splurge, erroneous, pugnacious, macabre, gauche, conglomerate, abyss, paraphernalia, kleptomania and 285 more...
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summerwing's Words
proctosigmoidoscopy, horrendous, cichlid, implode, nostalgic, firmament, elucidate, quintet, rhombus, mack, pithy, rambunctious and 304 more...
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SoSheShall's list
slurp, coeur, slurple, glop, perp, fluarxx, ropechno, herrherr, burrduhherrherr, sloppy, cheezie balls, eccentric and 634 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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And another
retrocausality, brusque, gainsay, cheerio, jaundiced, chamois, caw, craw, fudge, bubbler, shebang, bolo and 244 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, G
grocer, gabanergic, gabardine, gabbro, gaffe, gneiss, grapple, grosgrain, grommet, gratify, gossamer, goofy and 194 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
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xstala's Words
oneiric, inchoate, clandestine, tangerine, brusque, clout, benedictine, argonaut, juniper, tulle, zealot, vesper and 175 more...
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stpeter's Words
abase, abasement, abashed, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abhorrent, abide, abject, ablation, abnegation and 3536 more...
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Rita's List of Words
preliminary, rudimentary, stance, conduit, locale, implicit, vicissitude, empirical, repository, apophthegm, apothegm, invariable and 431 more...
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hober's Words
anglosphere, wiki, slither, cylon, satchel, faustian, ragamuffin, frak, salient, fervid, tartan, snowclone and 299 more...
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Amusing words
interesting words
bonce, furcate, tapioca, tillage, desalinate, garish, litmus, roadhog, azoic, haberdasher, imbroglio, polliwog and 802 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for glitch.
madmouth of Yiddish extraction (see more here) Apr 23, 2009