login
Plurallogins
Often confused with log in
- 1The process or a single instance of signing in to a computer system, network, or program.
Her login was rejected three times before the password reset.
A failed login triggers a temporary lockout after five tries.
Similarlogon, sign-in, sign-on
Note
Here the word names an event, so it counts attempts: a failed login, a second login, three logins in an hour. It usually comes with an outcome attached, because a login is something that fails or goes through. Its opposites are logout and logoff. Besides logon, sign-in and sign-on, it has the hyphenated spelling log-on.
- 2A pair of credentials consisting of a username and password for access to a computer system, application, or website.
She saved her login in a password manager for safekeeping.
Employees must update their login every ninety days.
Similarlogon, sign-in, sign-on
Note
Computing turned the phrasal verb log in into a noun. In this sense the noun names what you hold, not what you do: the username-and-password pair you can forget, save or borrow from a friend. Its near-equivalents are logon, sign-in and sign-on. When the word is something you keep or lose, it means this. When it succeeds or fails, it has moved to the act of signing in.
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Origin
This noun was formed from the verb phrase "log in".