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Technical Vocabularynoun · /ˈmem.ə.ri lik/

memory leak

In simple English

In software development, when a program allocates memory to store data, it must eventually free that memory when it is no longer needed. A memory leak occurs when the programmer forgets to release this memory, or when references to the memory are lost but the memory itself is not deallocated. Over time, as the program runs, it accumulates more and more unreleased memory, consuming system resources until performance degrades or the program crashes. Memory leaks are particularly common in languages like C and C++ where manual memory management is required, but they can also occur in languages with garbage collection if objects hold unnecessary references. In the workplace, developers spend considerable time debugging and fixing memory leaks because they can be difficult to detect and trace. Tools like Valgrind, AddressSanitizer, and profilers help identify where leaks occur in the codebase.

Understanding what memory leaks are, how they happen, and how to prevent or fix them in your code

At a glanceCEFR C1
Commonness4/5
Versatility4/5
FormalityCasualFormalNeutral
Spoken ↔ WrittenSpokenWrittenBoth
Directness ↔ DiplomaticDirectDiplomaticDirect
RegionUS and UK
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Say it like this

✓We have a memory leak in production that we need to address immediately
✓I found a memory leak in the event handler - it was holding onto references
✓The memory leak is causing the application to consume gigabytes of RAM over time

Real examples

in a standup

"Yesterday we identified a memory leak in the user session manager that was preventing the garbage collector from cleaning up old sessions."

in a code review

"This callback function creates a closure that captures the entire context object, which could cause a memory leak if not properly cleaned up on unmount."

in a team meeting

"The DevOps team reported that the API server is consuming 15 GB more memory each week, so we suspect a significant memory leak somewhere in the codebase."

Don't say this

Handle with care. Non-native speakers sometimes confuse memory leaks with other memory issues like stack overflow or buffer overflows. A memory leak specifically means allocated memory that is no longer accessible but not freed.

✕The server has too much memory leak.
✓The server has a memory leak.— Memory leak is a countable noun that takes the article a or the, not descriptors like too much
✕We need to memory leak the code before deployment.
✓We need to fix the memory leak before deployment.— Memory leak is a noun describing a problem, not a verb. You fix or patch a memory leak, you do not perform the action of memory leaking
✕This memory leak will be memory leaking for hours.
✓This memory leak will persist for hours if we do not address it.— Memory leak is not used as a verb in standard technical English

Other forms

noun

memory leak

"The memory leak in the application caused it to crash after several hours of operation."

noun (with adjective)

serious/critical/minor memory leak

"We discovered a critical memory leak that affects all long-running processes."

noun (plural)

memory leaks

"Multiple memory leaks in the codebase were responsible for the performance degradation."

Often used with

detect a memory leakTo identify or find a memory leak using debugging tools or profilers
fix/patch a memory leakTo resolve a memory leak by properly deallocating memory or removing circular references
cause a memory leakWhen code or a programming error results in memory not being freed
memory leak in productionA memory leak that exists in the live production environment affecting real users
serious/critical/minor memory leakDescribing the severity or impact level of a memory leak

Similar words

memory issueA broader term that includes memory leaks and other memory-related problems
unreleased memoryA more descriptive but less commonly used term for memory that should have been freed

Opposites

proper memory managementmemory cleanup

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Practice

Try it

4 quick exercises

Pick the most natural phrasing

1. Your monitoring dashboard shows memory usage increasing consistently. What do you say to your team?

Complete the sentence

2. After running the server for 72 hours, we noticed a _______ in the cache module that was consuming gigabytes of RAM.

Spot the mistake

3. Which sentence uses memory leak incorrectly?

Rewrite naturally

4. Rewrite this using memory leak: The program does not give back the storage space it asks for, so after many hours it runs out of space and stops working.

Questions

Quick poll

Have you said "memory leak" in a standup this week?

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