Meanings of abbreviations 'top'

When you log in on a server using SSH and run the command 'top', you will see a lot of information about the load and processes on your server. An important part of that is the distribution of the load at the top at 'CPU(s)', which features a percentage. This distribution uses abbreviations, meaning the following::

us: User

sy: System / Kernel

ni: Nice

id: idle (low priority)

wa: iowait (if this is high, there is a problem with the disk speed)

hi: hardware interrupt

si: software interrupt

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When using a hypervisor of virtual machines, the following might also be there:

st: Steal (The virtual machine cannot use the CPU because the CPU is in use by the hypervisor)