Standard Lemma guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
noun
An improvised device, typically crudely constructed to test the validity of a principle before implementing a finished design.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: informal
Topics: business, electrical-engineering, electricity, electromagnetism, electronics, energy, engineering, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, physics
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Any construction or practice, typically crude yet effective, designed to solve a problem temporarily or expediently.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: informal
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
An amalgamated mass of unrelated parts.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: informal
Topics: computing, engineering, mathematics, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, sciences
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A badly written or makeshift piece of software; a hack.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: informal
Topics: computing, engineering, mathematics, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, sciences
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To build or use a kludge.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: informal, transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
a badly assembled collection of parts hastily assembled to serve some particular purpose (often used to refer to computing systems or software that has been badly put together)
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: collection, aggregation, accumulation, assemblage
History
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.
Across languages
16 source translations are retained for this English entry.
