chmod
verb
chmod is a verb meaning “To change the access permissions and related special flags of (a file or directory)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled C-H-M-O-D, and it appears about once in every 22 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).
What does chmod mean?
verb
- 1
To change the access permissions and related special flags of (a file or directory).
Try this out by chmodding a directory 644!
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Forms of chmod
- chmods present, singular, he/she/it
- chmodding participle, present
- chmodded participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is chmod?
Chmod appears about once in every 22 million words in written English, the 143,405th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Where does chmod come from?
From the name of the program for this purpose, short for "change mode".
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).