Cracker vs Hacker - What's the difference? (2025)

Hacker is a synonym of cracker.

In computing terms the difference between cracker and hacker

is that cracker is one who cracks (i.e. overcomes) computer software or security restrictions while hacker is a computer security professional.

As nouns the difference between cracker and hacker

is that cracker is a dry, thin, crispy, and usually salty or savoury biscuit while hacker is something that hacks; a tool or device for hacking.

English

Etymology 1

From the verb to crack . Hard "bread/biscuit" sense first attested 1739, though "hard wafer" sense attested 1440.Sense of computer (cracker), (crack), (cracking), were promoted in the 1980s as an alternative to (hacker), by programmers concerned about negative public associations of (hack), . See .

Noun

(en noun)

  • A dry, thin, crispy, and usually salty or savoury biscuit.
  • A short piece of twisted string tied to the end of a whip that creates the distinctive sound when the whip is thrown or cracked .
  • A firecracker.
  • A person or thing that cracks, or that cracks a thing (e.g. whip cracker; nutcracker).
  • (Perhaps from previous sense.) A native of Florida or Georgia. See
  • (pejorative, ethnic slur) A white person, especially one form the Southeastern United States. Also "white cracker". See
  • A Christmas cracker
  • Refinery equipment used to pyrolyse organic feedstocks. If catalyst is used to aid pyrolysis it is informally called a cat-cracker
  • (chiefly, British) A fine thing or person (crackerjack).
    She's an absolute cracker'''! The show was a '''cracker !
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011, date=January 15, author=Saj Chowdhury, title=Man City 4 - 3 Wolves, work=BBCcitation, page=, passage=And just before the interval, Kolarov, who was having one of his better games in a City shirt, fizzed in a cracker from 30 yards which the Wolves stopper unconvincingly pushed behind for a corner. }}
  • An ambitious or hard-working person (i.e. someone who arises at the 'crack' of dawn).
  • (computing) One who cracks (i.e. overcomes) computer software or security restrictions.
  • * 1984 , Richard Sedric Fox Eells, Peter Raymond Nehemkis, Corporate Intelligence and Espionage: A Blueprint for Executive Decision Making , Macmillan, p 137:
    It stated to one of the company's operators, “The Phantom, the system cracker , strikes again . . . Soon I will zero (expletive deleted) your desks and your backups on System A. I have already cracked your System B.
  • * 2002 , Steve Jones, Encyclopedia of New Media (page 1925)
    Likewise, early software pirates and "crackers " often used phrases like "information wants to be free" to protest the regulations against the copying of proprietary software packages and computer systems.
  • (obsolete) A noisy boaster; a swaggering fellow.
  • * Shakespeare
    What cracker is this same that deafs our ears?
  • A northern pintail, species of dabbling duck.
  • (obsolete) A pair of fluted rolls for grinding caoutchouc.
    (Knight)
  • Derived terms

    * crackerless* crackerlike

    Synonyms

    * biscuit* (twisted string on a whip) popper, snapper* (one who defeats software security) black hat hacker* (one who defeats software security) hacker* (white person) honky, wonderbread, whitey

    Related terms

    * biscuit (UK)* cookie

    Etymology 2

    Various theories exists regarding this term's application to poor white Southerners. One theory holds that it originated with disadvantaged corn and wheat farmers ("corncrackers"), who cracked'' their crops rather than taking them to the mill. Another theory asserts that it was applied due to Georgia and Florida settlers (:

    I should explain to your Lordship what is meant by crackers; a name they have got from being great boasters; they are a lawless set of rascalls on the frontiers of Virginia, Maryland, the Carolinas and Georgia, who often change their places of abode." cracker]" in the Online Etymology Dictionary'', Douglas Harper, 2001"[http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-552 cracker" in ''The New Georgia Encyclopedia , John A. Burrison, Georgia State University, 2002

    Noun

    (en noun)

  • (US, pejorative, racial slur) An impoverished white person from the southeastern United States, originally associated with Georgia and parts of Florida; by extension: any white person.
  • Synonyms

    * (whites) white trash, trailer trash, redneck, peckerwood, honky, (sometimes ) crack head

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)

  • Something that hacks; a tool or device for hacking.
  • * 1825? , "Hannah Limbrick, Executed for Murder", in The Newgate Calendar: comprising interesting memoirs of the most notorious characters , page 231:
    Thomas Limbrick, who was only nine years of age, said he lived with his mother when Deborah was beat: that his mother throwed her down all along with her hands; and then against a wall, and kicked her in the belly: that afterwards she picked her up, and beat her with the hacker on the side of the head; wiped the blood off with a dish-clout, and took her up to bed after she was dead.
  • * July 1846 , John Macleod, "The Tar and Turpentine Business of North Carolina", on page 15 of the Monthly Journal of Agriculture , volume II, number 1:
    When the dipping is thus over, the next work is to "chip" or scarify the tree immediately over the box [...]. This is done by an instrument usually called a "hacker ," sometimes "shave." Its form is somewhat like a "round shave," narrowing at the cutting place to the diameter of an inch, with a shank, to be fixed securely into a strong, heavy handle of about two feet in length, while the faces of the trees are low, but the handle is made longer as years advance the faces higher.
  • * 1877 , Reports and Awards'' of the United States Centennial Commission (regarding the) International Exhibition, 1876 (Francis A. Walker, editor), ''Reports on Awards, Group XXI , page 13:
    23. George C. howard, Philadelphia, U.S.
    GRINDSTONE HACKER.
    Report''.--Commended for the contrivance of an instrument, called a "hacker'''," that is used in trimming grindstones. This ' hacker turns with the stone, and is drawn across in a slide rest, and fulfills its important function satisfactorily.
  • Someone who hacks.
  • * 1902 , Our Wonderful Progress , Trumbull White (editor), page 623–624:
    In January or February the "hacker'," with his keen-bladed ax, begins the round which ends the season. [...] About a quart of sap is taken from each box by means of the trowel-shaped scoop used by the dipper, and then the ' hacker comes along and starts the flow afresh by wounding the tree again.
  • # Particularly, one who cuts with rough or heavy blows.
  • # Particularly, one who kicks wildly or roughly.
  • # Particularly, one who is consistent and focuses on accomplishing a task or several tasks.
  • (computing) One who is expert at programming and solving problems with a computer.
  • *
  • (computing) one who uses a computer to gain unauthorized access to data, or to carry out malicious attacks.
  • * 2007 , Committee on Improving Cybersecurity Research in the United States, ?Toward a Safer and More Secure Cyberspace
    Typically, one hacker will annoy another; the offended party replies by launching a denial-of-service attack against the offender.
  • (computing) a computer security professional
  • (US) one who is inexperienced or unskilled at a particular activity, especially a sport such as golf or tennis.
  • (US) one who operates a taxicab
  • *
  • *
  • *
  • Synonyms

    * cracker

    Usage notes

    * There are significantly more meanings of the word within the United States

    hacker - Merriam Webster Online (American English)

    than in other English speaking nations.* The use of the word (term) to indicate a person who displays skill, particularly with computers, may be misunderstood

    hack; hacker - Concise Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford University Press (British English)

    as implying the narrow meaning of unauthorised intrusion into electronic systems (also known as a (cracker) or occasionally (black hat)). This serious misunderstanding in the field of computer expertise is perhaps particularly common outside the United States.* Some computer enthusiasts object to the use of (term) for a person who breaks into computer systems, preferring (cracker) for this sense.

    References

    See also

    ** Hacker's dictionary definition of hacker US only* RFC1392 - Internet Users' Glossary, Jan 1993----

    Cracker vs Hacker - What's the difference? (2025)
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