Feature creep means: The way a project that started simple grows extra requirements until it's six months late and unbuildable. Almost always leadership-driven; almost always blamed on engineering.. There is no real cause for parental concern; it is descriptive vocabulary rather than risky behaviour. If your teen uses it, context will usually make the intent clear. A short, curious question about where they heard it is usually all that is needed to know whether to follow up.
feature creep
The way a project that started simple grows extra requirements until it's six months late and unbuildable.
Etymology timeline
Born ~1980 · no dated citations yetDefinitions
The way a project that started simple grows extra requirements until it's six months late and unbuildable. Almost always leadership-driven; almost always blamed on engineering.
What started as a settings page is now a whole permissions system. Classic feature creep.
Feature creep means: The way a project that started simple grows extra requirements until it's six months late and unbuildable. Almost always leadership-driven; almost always blamed on engineering.. There is no real cause for parental concern; it is descriptive vocabulary rather than risky behaviour. If your teen uses it, context will usually make the intent clear. A short, curious question about where they heard it is usually all that is needed to know whether to follow up.
feature creep means: The way a project that started simple grows extra requirements until it's six months late and unbuildable. Almost always leadership-driven; almost always blamed on engineering.. Register: neutral, standard English. Common learner mistake is using the word in a register it does not fit, or assuming a single global meaning; always check the context before producing it yourself.
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Why is this section here?
Slang is read by different audiences for very different reasons. The For parents view re-explains the term in plain, non-judgemental language so a caregiver can understand what their child means without needing the surrounding subculture. The For English learners view focuses on register (when it's safe to use), formal alternatives, and common mistakes — what a textbook won't teach you.
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Semantically related
- scope creep83%
The gradual expansion of a project's original scope as "small" additions stack up. The project was "a login page." Now it includes SSO, MFA, password rotation, audit logs, and admin tooling. Every additional requirement feels small in isolation; together they double the timeline.
- scope creep81%
Uncontrolled growth in the scope or requirements of a project.
- custom snowball60%
(intransitive) To rapidly increase in complexity due to cascading custom requirements.
- custom snowball59%
(business, software engineering, slang) A cascading chain reaction in which a single non-standard feature, modification, or workaround forces the creation of subsequent custom solutions to maintain compatibility, ultimately resulting in disproportionate complexity and technical debt.
- feechur59%
(computing, slang, derogatory, rare) An undesirable or misimplemented feature .