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hard-wired

or hard·wired

[ hahrd-wahyuhrd ]

adjective

  1. Computers.
    1. built into a computer's hardware and thus not readily changed.
    2. (of a terminal) connected to a computer by a direct circuit rather than through a switching network.
  2. (of electrical or electronic components) connected by hardwiring.
  3. pertaining to or being an intrinsic and relatively unmodifiable behavior pattern:

    Every cricket has a hard-wired pattern of chirps.



hard-wired

adjective

  1. (of a circuit or instruction) permanently wired into a computer, replacing separate software
  2. (of human behaviour) innate; not learned

    humans have a hard-wired ability for acquiring language

“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Word History and Origins

Origin of hard-wired1

First recorded in 1970–75
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Example Sentences

The OBR’s role in judging the affordability of every single policy, elsewhere in the speech, is now hard-wired.

From BBC

In “The Age of Magical Overthinking,” Amanda Montell observes how information overload and online culture have hijacked our brain’s hard-wired vulnerabilities.

But this arcane piece of mathematics is hard-wired into UK government spending and removing it from the system would have potentially big implications for Scotland and Northern Ireland.

From BBC

The second attribute that I noticed was a kind of impatience hard-wired into their personalities.

From BBC

More than that, Miller feels “we are hard-wired for story. The underlying elements are all sensed intuitively.”

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Hardwick Hallhardwiring