ASCII character set
- noun
- /ˈæskiˌkaɪ ˈkɛrɪktər sɛt/
- Specialized
- Most early computers could only display the ASCII character set on their screens.
Examples
-
When saving a file as plain text, only the ASCII character set is guaranteed to be preserved.
-
All text files are saved using characters from the ASCII character set.
-
The ASCII character set does not include characters with accents or other diacritics.
-
The ASCII character set includes letters and symbols.
-
The ASCII character set is fundamental for text files.
-
The program only accepts input that includes symbols from the ASCII character set.
-
When coding in Python, you can use letters and numbers from the ASCII character set without any issues.
Synonyms
A system that gives a number to each letter, digit, and symbol so computers can share text
A group of letters, numbers, and symbols used for writing and showing text
How Many
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is a straightforward compositional noun phrase: 'ASCII' names an encoding standard, 'character' means a symbol, and 'set' means a group, so together they denote the group of symbols defined by the ASCII standard. This follows normal English modifier + head patterns, so a learner who knows the three constituents can derive the meaning without prior exposure.
Etymology
The noun ASCII character set comes from an early computer 'standard' that gave every letter, number and symbol its own number so machines could 'talk' to each other. So today ASCII character set means the basic set of 128 characters computers use to 'represent' letters, numbers and simple symbols.