cyber

See also: cyber-

English

Etymology

Originally from cybernetics, before becoming a stand-alone word.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈsaɪ.bə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsaɪ.bəɹ/
• (Canada, idle-idol split) IPA^(key): /ˈsʌɪ.bəɹ/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: cy‧ber
• Rhymes: -aɪbə(ɹ)

Adjective

cyber (not comparable)

1. Of, or having to do with, the Internet; alternative spelling of cyber-
   • 2021, Charles P. Pierce, “Vladimir Putin Is a King Bullshit Artist,” Esquire, June 17 [quoting Joe Biden]:

     I pointed out to him we have significant cyber capability and he knows it. He doesn’t know exactly what it is, but it’s significant. And if in fact they violate these basic norms, we will respond cyberly. He knows. In a cyber way.

2. (informal) Cybergoth.
   • 1998, Richard Peter Treadwell Davenport-Hines, Gothic: four hundred years of excess, horror, evil, and ruin:

     She is a high priestess of the Church of the SubGenius, a devotee of the music of Tom Waits and Robert Smith, and of goth and cyber subcultures.

   • 2007, Tiffany Godoy, Ivan Vartanian, Style Deficit Disorder: Harajuku Street Fashion, Tokyo:

     ...a cross between metal, punk, goth, cyber, and rock.

   • 2007, Raven Digitalis, Goth Craft: The Magickal Side of Dark Culture:

     No CyberGoth is complete without gigantic "stompy" platform boots and the optional toy ray gun. Some are even more anachronistic in that they incorporate old Renaissance and Victorian styles into their much-loved cyber wear.

Derived terms

• cyberbole
• cyberly
• cyberstyle
• cyber transport
• cybertype
• cyberverse
• cyberwear
• cybrary
• cyburban
• noncyber

 

Verb

cyber (third-person singular simple present cybers, present participle cybering, simple past and past participle cybered)

1. (slang, dated) To engage in cybersex.

   Wanna cyber?

Noun

cyber

1. (singular only) Everything having to do with the Internet considered collectively.
   • 2004, Henry Linger, Julie Fisher, W. Gregory Wojtkowski, Constructing the Infrastructure for the Knowledge Economy: Methods and Tools, Theory and Practice‎^[1]:

     These prefigure the more complex aspects of virtual and real interactions which the cyber will deliver to us in these early years of the new millennium.

   • 2012, Sean Swan (Ed), On the Cyber

     The pace and extent to which the cyber is transforming our world increases daily.

2. Cybersecurity.
   • 2023 May 28, Roula Khalaf, “Lunch with the FT: Jeremy Fleming”, in FT Weekend, Life & Arts, page 3:

     Is there an escalatory ladder in cyber, the same as with weapons of mass destruction? Fleming doesn't like the comparison with nuclear deterrence but says that Russia is indeed conscious of escalation risk.

See also

• cyber-
• Appendix:American Dialect Society words of the year

References

• “cyber”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Anagrams

• Bryce, becry