Pwned

[Sarah]

A corruption of the word Owned. This originated in an online game called Warcraft, where a map designer misspelled owned. When the computer beat a player, it was supposed to say, so-and-so has been owned.

Instead, it said, so-and-so has been pwned.

It basically means to own or to be dominated by an opponent or situation, especially by some god-like or computer-like force.

[Justin Bieber]

Unlike the other people who have posted definitions that are ridiculous, do not have substantial backing, or are simply mis-informed, I will give the complete definition of what pwned means.

1. The origins of pwned are debated but there are two possible sources:
   a. A prominent quake player mis spelled owned and the new word pwned was adopted by people who thought it was 1337.
   b. A warcraft map designer misspelled [owned] and thus people started using pwned instead.

The definitions are as follows:
In video games:

1. Completely annihilated or dominated.
2. Perfectly owned, meaning the other player did not do any damage.

[Couch Potatoe]

What happens to retards who keep arguing about the origin of pwned on the Internet

[Jessica]

This term actually comes from a game created hundreds of years ago, even before computers were invented. This game was called, chess. The object of the game was to put the other player in checkmate, meaning, he was unable to move his king anywhere that he would not be threatened by another piece. Also in this game, you have 8 pieces at the front of your army called pawns, these were the least useful of all pieces, but that is not to mean they were worthless. If you could defeat the other player by using your pawn to apply check, that was called, and is still called pawned.
Now, back in the early 80s, before warcraft, counterstrike or even the INTERNET, there were ways you could contact other PCs by using a modem. These were called BBSs and allowed you to connect to individual computers acting as severs where games would be so that people could play other people they did not know. Now, when I used to play these games as well as many other people 22 , they used to use and coined the phrase, pwned. Which was slang for pawned. It eventually was taken from just chess and used in other text based games to taunt the loser of a match. It is now commonly wide spread across the world, although the children do not understand its true meaning.
Saying it came from anywhere else is stating youre a poser for the fact you have no knowledge of gaming history and like to think you do so you make things up. Thanks.

[Tina]

a common typo of [owned] that is used in the same way, or more sarcasticly to mock 1337 speak. If you think pwned can be attributed to a single source you are retarded.

[Sarah]

I wont even mention the origin of pwned here. (I mean, who the fuck cares... O is next to P on a keyboard. It was going to happen eventually). Unlike silly misspellings like [teh], the reason why pwned became popular, is because it looks and sounds good.
If you look at the phonetics of the original, [owned], it has a very round, relaxed sound to it. The sharper pwned, however, is fast and furious, like the cracking of a whip, the firing of a silenced gun, or a motherfucking laser weapon.
PEW! PEW! ... pwned.
Because of its explosive sound, pwned will mainly be used where someone is defeated or humiliated in a very sudden and convincing manner. The slower, more elaborate owned will more oftenly describe domination over time.
pwned is a very good word. Its phonetic similarity to fast, impressive finishes seems well suited to videogames. Because the word sounds like what it does, it will probably stay with us for a long time.

[Julene]

to defeat or take control of someone or something, usually in an internet video game: