dictionary attack

A hacking attempt in which the attacker tries to log in with your username and a password. Each time the attacker tries he uses a different word in the dictionary.

My password was "password," so our corporate infrastructure fell to a dictionary attack.

by Bryant Gumbel February 20, 2003

dictionary attack

A method of artificially enhancing the length and/or word count of a paper by using unnecessarily complex words and phrases.

The essay had a 1000 word minimum, so I had to use a dictionary attack to get those last few hundred.

by Grinman April 12, 2007