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Glite Dictionary
ASCII character

ASCII character

4.8
A basic letter, number, symbol, or control code like newline that computers store as a standard number
  • noun
  • /ˈæskiˌkaɪ ˈkɛrɪktər/
  • Specialized
translation icon : carácter ASCII
  • The text file only contains basic ASCII characters, so it's compatible with most applications.

Examples

  • Each ASCII character is stored as a single byte in older computer systems.

  • The letter 'A' is an ASCII character.

  • To represent a newline, the ASCII character with the value 10 is used.

  • Can you show me the ASCII characters for numbers?

  • The mail data may contain any of the 128 ASCII characters.

  • Commands and replies are composed of characters from the ASCII character set.

  • These labels are restricted for SMTP purposes to consist of a sequence of letters, digits, and hyphens drawn from the ASCII character set.

Synonyms

character
vsASCII character
136 3.2

A written sign such as a letter or number

represents such symbols by unique binary codes in a specific encoding
char
vsASCII character
  • Specialized
2 7.5

A single letter, number, or symbol used in writing and on computers

represents those symbols as unique binary numbers in a defined encoding

Surface Forms

ASCII character singular
ASCII characters plural

Morphology

ASCII + character

The meaning is directly compositional: it refers to a 'character' as represented by the 'ASCII' encoding standard, so a learner who knows 'ASCII' (an encoding standard) and 'character' (a symbol) can infer the phrase. This literal modifier + noun structure is common and has clear equivalents in many languages, making it transparently understandable.

Etymology

ASCII character comes from a simple system made so different computers could share 'text': engineers gave every character a fixed number called ASCII, like giving each letter its own name. That's why ASCII character means a single letter or symbol a computer stores as a number.