it's not a bug, it's a feature

phrase

What one user may consider a software bug, other users may consider to be a useful feature or an intentional consequence of the system's design.

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Meanings

phrase

alternative INABIAF · alternative it's a feature, not a bug

  1. computingWhat one user may consider a software bug, other users may consider to be a useful feature or an intentional consequence of the system's design.
  2. humorousA self-deprecating response when confronted by a bug in the software that one is authored or is introducing to another user.
  3. broadlyAffirms the validity of a counterintuitive behavior within a system; it is by design.

    One annoyance, or maybe it’s one of those “it’s-not-a-bug-it’s-a-feature” situations, is the gearshift.

    1999 September 29, “Long-term Test Cars”, in Popular Mechanics, New York City
    1 more example

    “It is a feature, not a bug of Article 3 that the courts grant relief for the people in front of them,” Sauer said.

    2025 May 15, Bart Jansen, quoting D. John Sauer, “Brown Jackson questioned how courts help multiple victims with only one litigant”, in USA Today, New York City, retrieved 15 May 2025

Origin

Coined by American computer programmer Sandra Lee Harris in 1971 at Digital Equipment Corporation.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Japanese それは仕様です
  • それは仕様です (sore wa shiyō desu)in computing
Cite this entry
APA

it's not a bug, it's a feature. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/it's%20not%20a%20bug%2C%20it's%20a%20feature

MLA

“it's not a bug, it's a feature.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/it's%20not%20a%20bug%2C%20it's%20a%20feature. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “it's not a bug, it's a feature,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/it's%20not%20a%20bug%2C%20it's%20a%20feature.

Source: it's not a bug, it's a feature on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.