Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🌐 Not supporting sides 💻 Not properly placed ↔️ Not in agreement
unaligned

unaligned

1 6.8
Not placed at the expected position in memory, causing errors or slow access
  • adjective
  • /ˌʌnəˈlaɪnd/
  • Specialized
translation icon : desalineado
  • This software has trouble processing unaligned inputs, leading to unexpected results.
  • unaligned load
  • unaligned load string
  • unaligned accesses

Examples

  • In POWER systems, hardware handles the most frequent cases for unaligned accesses.

    Academic text (1994)

  • This allows simulation of load-store interaction, unaligned data, and multiple references to a line that has a cache miss.

    Academic text (2000)

  • Some processors can actually read and write unaligned data at the same speed as aligned data.

    Blog text (18)

  • You access many unaligned pieces of data, which aren't contiguous in memory.

    Blog text (18)

  • The cache supports both aligned and unaligned accesses.

    Academic text (1994)

  • Here's why: 1 or 2 cache misses are likely to take less than a millisecond, so accessing unaligned data will only be a problem if:

    Blog text (18)

  • POWER2 extends hardware support for unaligned accesses to include quad-word accesses on any odd-word boundary.

    Academic text (1994)

  • Accessing data that is unaligned can significantly slow down processing speeds.

  • When the memory blocks are unaligned, the system may encounter errors during data retrieval.

Synonyms

off-kilter
vsunaligned
  • Informal
7 7.5

Not straight or level and a little strange

is specifically about wrong placement that can slow access or produce errors
uncentered
vsunaligned
  • US
5.1

Placed away from the middle so it looks unbalanced

refers to misplacement that affects technical position and may cause errors
decentered
vsunaligned
6.5

Not placed in the middle, making it off-center

is about placement errors that harm device access speed or cause faults

Antonyms

aligned
3.7

In a straight line or in the correct position next to something

How Aligned

aligned
3.7
unaligned
  • Specialized
1 6.8
misplaced
5 2.8

Surface Forms

unaligned positive

Morphology

unaligned = aligned (semi-transparent) = un + align + ed

Morphologically regular (un- + aligned), but the specific computing/electronic meaning is domain-specific.

Etymology

Unaligned comes from the part un- meaning 'not' and align meaning 'to put in the right place' or 'line up', so in computers unaligned data is 'not in the right position' and this can make access slow or cause errors.