Pebcak
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Chiefly used by technical support helpdesk staff: a problem experienced with a user's computer that is due to user error. also, attributive, humorous
"Miraculously, all of a sudden, the client's network began behaving beautifully! Before, PEBCAKs were causing a technician to need to visit their company every day, and now—after a simple deployment of basic policies—the client was ecstatic. […] Ask your IT professionals, "What percentage of your time, on a daily basis, do you spend solving PEBCAK issues?" Don't be surprised if you hear answers of 30% or more. Now, calculate how much money PEBCAKs are costing you in IT expense as well as lost productivity for the employees. Then deploy policies in a staged rollout to reduce this costly expense."
Example
More examples"Miraculously, all of a sudden, the client's network began behaving beautifully! Before, PEBCAKs were causing a technician to need to visit their company every day, and now—after a simple deployment of basic policies—the client was ecstatic. […] Ask your IT professionals, "What percentage of your time, on a daily basis, do you spend solving PEBCAK issues?" Don't be surprised if you hear answers of 30% or more. Now, calculate how much money PEBCAKs are costing you in IT expense as well as lost productivity for the employees. Then deploy policies in a staged rollout to reduce this costly expense."
Etymology
Acronym of problem exists between chair and keyboard.
Related phrases
More for "pebcak"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.