Kludge
noun, verb, slang ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 An improvised device, typically crudely constructed to test the validity of a principle before implementing a finished design. informal
- 2 a badly assembled collection of parts hastily assembled to serve some particular purpose wordnet
- 3 Any construction or practice, typically crude yet effective, designed to solve a problem temporarily or expediently. informal
- 4 An amalgamated mass of unrelated parts. informal
- 5 A badly written or makeshift piece of software; a hack. informal
- 1 To build or use a kludge. informal, transitive
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"We don’t have time for the perfect solution. We just need a kludge."
Etymology
Perhaps from British military slang, possibly based on Scots word kludge or kludgie (“common toilet”), or perhaps from German klug (“clever”). Alternatively, possibly related to Polish klucz (“key, clue, main point”) and Russian ключ (ključ, “key, clue”). Alternatively, perhaps from (a form related to) Germanic words such as Dutch Low Saxon klütje (“(little) dumpling, clod”), Dutch kluit(je) or Jutland Danish klyt (“piece of bad workmanship, klud(g)e”); compare and standard Danish kludder (“mess, disorder”). (Compare klutz.) There is evidence that kluge (which see) was once a separate word with similar meaning but separate derivation, but the spelling kludge was widely popularized in the US by an article in Datamation "How to Design a Kludge" (1962), and since then the two words have often been used as alternative spellings of each other. According to the OED, an "invented word" influenced by bodge and fudge.
Related phrases
More for "kludge"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.