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.

An intentionally mispelled term for "Owned". Originating as a result of the "P-key" being adjacent and aligned with the "O-key" on the QWERTY keybpard, it is a commpnly accepted term ampng gamers and shares the same definitipn as "Owned".

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 80's, before warcraft, counterstrike or even the INTERNET, there were ways you could contact other PC's by using a modem. These were called BBS's 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 you're a poser for the fact you have no knowledge of gaming history and like to think you do so you make things up. Thanks.

The console command to pwn someone, or inform someone that they have been pwned.

In the Quake 3 engine, and others, the forward slash is used to denote that you want a cvar command (if you typed it without the slash, then it would be a "say" command, and broadcast to everyone in the game).

/pwned may be said on purpose rather than commanded to show emphasize the action of the pwnage without using many exclaimation marks, 1's, and oneoneones.

-to be ass-raped
(refered to in dominating someone)
-can be literal or just a saying

I won't 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 it's 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. It's 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.

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.

Pwned means to completely dominate the opposition, or impose a humiliating defeat on the enemy. This term is used mostly in online games.

Pwned originates from a game of Counter-Strike, around Christmas day in 2002, in which a player was eating while playing at a party, and faced off against the last remaining enemy by himself. After winning, he typed with one-hand the word "owned", which ended as a mistype, with the "p" replacing the letter "o" (P and O are next to each other on the QWERTY keyboard). Instead of correcting the mistake, other players started using it, which soon spread to popular games, like Starcraft I and Warcraft III.

1. The domination of a person, place or thing
2. An epic win over someone else
3. A crushing of someone else's talent or belief.