Bugs Glossary

Browse 31 bugs terms defined in plain English, from the cultural dictionary of computing.

31 Bugs Terms

Anti-Gravity Bug
A joking term for a bug that seems to defy normal expectations or refuse to behave according to the apparent rules of the system. In engineering slang, it...
Bug Magnet
A piece of code, component, or person that seems to attract bugs and breakage unusually often. In engineering slang, calling something a bug magnet usually...
Bug Priority
The relative urgency assigned to fixing a bug based on business impact, user pain, deadlines, or operational risk. Bug priority is about when the bug should be...
Bug Severity
The seriousness of a bug's impact on correctness, stability, security, or user experience. Bug severity is about how bad the issue is when it happens, which is...
Bug Tracker
A system used to record, triage, assign, and track software defects and related engineering work. Bug trackers provide visibility into status, ownership,...
Code Issue
A defect, smell, or problematic pattern found in code, whether functional, structural, or maintainability-related. The phrase is broad enough to include logic...
Code Landmine
A hidden dangerous condition in code that detonates only when someone steps on the right trigger. In engineering slang, code landmines are especially painful...
Concurrency Bug
A defect caused by incorrect coordination between concurrent operations, such as race conditions, deadlocks, lost updates, or visibility issues. Concurrency...
Edge Case
An input or condition at the extreme boundary of expected parameters — the empty string, the null value, the list with exactly one element, the date February...
Glitch
A small, often visible malfunction or irregular behavior in software, hardware, or media output. The word implies something odd and noticeable, but not always...
GOTO Fail
A reference to Apple's infamous SSL bug caused by a duplicated `goto fail;` line, now used as shorthand for tiny coding mistakes with outsized security...
Issue Tracker
A system for recording and managing bugs, feature requests, tasks, and support problems over time. For many open source projects, the issue tracker is the...
Its Not a Bug
A joking or defensive phrase used when a problem is reframed as intended behavior, often unconvincingly. It usually implies tension between user expectations...
Land Mine
A hidden risk or bug waiting to be triggered by the wrong change or condition. In engineering slang, land mines are the traps you step on only after a...
Off by One
A classic programming error where a loop, range, index, or count is one step too high or too low. It is common enough that the phrase became general shorthand...
Overflow
A condition in which a computation produces a value that exceeds the storage capacity of its data type. Integer overflow wraps a value past its maximum (e.g.,...
Reopen
To mark a previously closed issue or ticket as active again because the problem persists or has returned. In engineering slang, reopening something is often a...
Reopened
Marked as active again after being previously considered resolved or closed, usually because the problem persists or a regression reappeared. It is a dreaded...
Shared State
Mutable data that is accessible by multiple threads, goroutines, or processes simultaneously, making it the primary source of race conditions, deadlocks, and...
Sneaky Bug
A defect that hides well because it appears only under particular conditions, looks like something else, or leaves weak clues in logs and tests. The phrase...
Squash
To combine commits into one, or more generally to eliminate a bug or problem decisively. The Git meaning is precise, while the bug-fixing meaning is looser...
Surprise Feature
A bug or unintended behavior jokingly reframed as if it were an actual feature. The phrase usually carries a defensive or sarcastic tone when something broken...
That's a Feature
A joking or defensive response used when a bug, odd behavior, or poor UX is reframed as intentional. It is usually said with irony because the audience can...
This Should Never Happen
A phrase engineers use when a supposedly impossible state occurs, often right before discovering a flawed assumption or missing invariant. It is half reaction,...
Trivial Fix
A supposedly small easy change, often described optimistically right before it turns out to touch three systems and two hidden assumptions. The phrase is...
Undocumented Feature
A joking euphemism for a bug or unexpected behavior. In engineering slang, calling something an undocumented feature softens the pain while still admitting...
Unplanned Feature
A joking way to describe accidental behavior that users may notice or even like despite not being intentionally built. In engineering slang, the phrase carries...
Upstream Bug
A bug originating in an upstream dependency, project, or provider rather than in the local code that is currently exhibiting the failure. In engineering...
Whack-a-Mole
A situation where fixing one issue causes another similar issue to appear elsewhere, so the team keeps reacting without solving the underlying pattern. The...
Workaround
A temporary method for avoiding or reducing the impact of a problem without actually fixing the underlying cause. In engineering culture, workarounds are often...
Y2K
The Year 2000 problem — a class of bugs caused by software storing years as two digits, making the year 2000 indistinguishable from 1900. The largest...

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