Meanings
plural technical debts · alternative clipping tech debt
- countableuncountablecomputingThe implied cost of additional future work caused by choosing an easy but inferior solution originally.
An important attribute of technical debt is that it grows in an unpredictable, nonlinear fashion. Each bit of technical debt, when added to the pool of existing technical debt, might do significantly more harm than the size of that new debt might imply.
2012, Kenneth S. Rubin, Essential Scrum, Addison-Wesley, →ISBN, page 142Synonyms: design debt, code debt
Synonyms & antonyms
nounThe implied cost of additional future work caused by choosing an easy but inferior solution originally.
Origin
Coined by American computer programmer Ward Cunningham in 1992.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Chinese Mandarin 技術債務 /技术债务, 技術負債 /技术负债
- 技術債務 /技术债务implied cost of additional future work
- 技術負債 /技术负债implied cost of additional future work
- 技術債 /技术债 (jìshùzhài)implied cost of additional future work
Japanese 技術的負債
- 技術的負債 (Gijutsu-teki fusai)implied cost of additional future work
Swedish teknisk skuld
- teknisk skuldimplied cost of additional future work
Cite this entry
technical debt. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/technical%20debt
“technical debt.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/technical%20debt. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “technical debt,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/technical%20debt.
Source: technical debt on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.