ASCII

[ as-kee ]

noun

, Computers.

1. American Standard Code for Information Interchange: a standard code, consisting of 128 7-bit combinations, for characters stored in a computer or to be transmitted between computers.

ASCII

/ ˈæskiː /

acronym for

1. American standard code for information interchange: a computer code for representing alphanumeric characters

ASCII

/ ăs′kē /

1. A code that assigns the numbers 0 through 127 to the letters of the alphabet, the digits 0 through 9, punctuation marks, and certain other characters. For example, the capital letter A is coded as 65 (binary 1000001). By standardizing the values used to represent written text, ASCII enables computers to exchange information. Basic, or standard, ASCII uses seven bits for each character code, giving it 2 ⁷, or 128, unique symbols. Various larger character sets, called extended ASCII, use eight bits for each character, yielding 128 additional codes numbered 128 to 255.
2. Compare Unicode

ASCII

1. An acronym for A merican S tandard C ode for I nformation I nterchange. Computers use this code to standardize communication between different machines.

Word History and Origins

Origin of ASCII¹

First recorded in 1960–65

Example Sentences

Below is an ascii representation of the plans along with a key to the rooms.

From Project Gutenberg

To see an ascii rendering of the diagram of the Lion House, download the text or html version of this ebook.

From Project Gutenberg