An unintentionally truncated frame or packet. A runt is either malformed or errored in transit and must be ignored if received.
See runt in Computer
The frame that remains after a collision on a CSMA/CD medium such as Ethernet. Runts are undersize packets, smaller than what the network protocol calls for, such as 64 bytes in Ethernet. Electrical interference or faulty wiring can also produce a runt. It is the opposite of an oversize packet, termed a "giant." See runt filtering.