leaky abstraction

noun

An abstraction that undesirably exposes details and limitations of its underlying implementation.

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Meanings

nounleaky abstraction (plural leaky abstractions)

plural leaky abstractions

  1. computingAn abstraction that undesirably exposes details and limitations of its underlying implementation.
    1 more example

    This is a classic case of leaky abstraction. Repository is supposed to abstract away any concerns around querying the database, but now what we are doing here is returning an IQueryable<T> to the consuming code and asking it to build the queries, thus leaking the abstraction that is supposed to be hidden into repository.

    2015, Suhas Chatekar, Learning NHibernate 4, Packt Publishing Ltd, →ISBN, page 291

Origin

Popularised in 2002 by software engineer Joel Spolsky.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

leaky abstraction. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/leaky%20abstraction

MLA

“leaky abstraction.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/leaky%20abstraction. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “leaky abstraction,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/leaky%20abstraction.

Source: leaky abstraction on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.