死锁（英语：Deadlock），又译为死结，计算机科学名词。当两个以上的运算单元，双方都在等待对方停止运行，以取得系统资源，但是没有一方提前退出时，这种状况，就称为死结。在多任务操作系统中，操作系统为了协调不同行程，能否取得系统资源时，为了让系统运作，就必须要解决这个问题。

这里指的是进程死锁，是个计算机技术名词。它是操作系统或软件运行的一种状态：在多任务系统下，当一个或多个进程等待系统资源，而资源又被进程本身或其它进程占用时，就形成了死锁。有个变种叫活锁。

In concurrent programming, a deadlock is a situation in which two or more competing actions are each waiting for the other to finish, and thus neither ever does.

In a transactional database, a deadlock happens when two processes each within its own transaction updates two rows of information but in the opposite order. For example, process A updates row 1 then row 2 in the exact timeframe that process B updates row 2 then row 1. Process A can't finish updating row 2 until process B is finished, but process B cannot finish updating row 1 until process A is finished. No matter how much time is allowed to pass, this situation will never resolve itself and because of this, database management systems will typically kill the transaction of the process that has done the least amount of work.