What is meant by "memory leak" in programming?

A memory leak in programming specifically refers to the situation where a program allocates memory for use but fails to release that memory back to the system when it is no longer needed. Over time, these unreleased memory allocations can accumulate, leading to a decrease in available memory, which can ultimately cause the application or system to become slow or even crash due to insufficient memory resources. This problem is often associated with poor memory management practices, such as forgetting to free memory in languages like C or C++, or creating circular references in languages with garbage collection.

The impact of memory leaks can be significant, as they can lead to performance degradation and unstable applications, making it crucial for developers to implement proper memory management strategies, such as tracking allocations and ensuring that memory is freed when it is no longer in use.