Explain what the term 'stream starvation' means in the context of programming or system resources.

The term "thread starvation" in programming refers to a situation where one or more threads do not get access to necessary system resources or CPU time because other threads are constantly occupying these resources. As a result, starving threads cannot continue execution, leading to delays or hangs.

For example, if you have several threads with different priorities, and high-priority threads constantly occupy the processor, low-priority threads may never get a chance to run — this is called starvation. To prevent this, operating systems and thread schedulers use mechanisms such as priority inheritance or priority balancing.