Glitch

Why Trust Techopedia

What Does Glitch Mean?

A glitch, in technical terms, refers to a small and fleeting error in a system that occurs due to unknown causes. While the actual cause of a glitch is unknown, it can potentially cause serious harm to the system, including power failure, temporary loss of service or data loss.

Advertisements

Techopedia Explains Glitch

In the event of a glitch, the system experiences a temporary failure. In networks, a glitch can cause loss of data or service and short-lived failure in the case of a power system. Glitches are not only common in electrical and electronic systems where hardware is involved; software also experiences glitches, that are commonly known as bugs. Software bugs often go away once the program is restarted because it eliminates the conditions that caused the glitch. However, sometimes restarting the program is not enough and systems needs to be rebooted in order to get rid of a system glitch.

Advertisements

Related Terms

Margaret Rouse
Technology Specialist
Margaret Rouse
Technology Specialist

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.