assembly language

American

noun

Computers.

a programming language most of whose expressions are symbolic equivalents of the machine-language instructions of a particular computer.

assembly language British

noun

computing a low-level programming language that allows a programmer complete control of the machine code to be generated

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of assembly language

First recorded in 1960–65

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Its fragmented internal architecture was built around Sega’s cutting-edge arcade machine technology, but developers needed expert knowledge of assembly language to wrestle anything out of it.

From The Guardian • Jul. 16, 2020

I learned to code when you could use a hole-punch, scissors and manila file folder to hack assembly language on an IBM 360.

From New York Times • Nov. 8, 2017

It was designed and written from scratch in assembly language, a level just barely above the 1’s and 0’s of the computer’s native tongue.

From Slate • May 11, 2015

Even into the 1970s it was common, even normal, to program in assembly language.

From Newsweek • Mar. 21, 2015

I used a divide-and-conquer multiply routine, hand coded in 68020 assembly language.

From Pi by Hemphill, Scott

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023