binary code

American

noun

Computers.

a system of representing letters, numbers, or other characters, using binary notation.

binary code British

noun

computing the representation of each one of a set of numbers, letters, etc, as a unique sequence of bits, as in ASCII

"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

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.

A final burst of laser pulses nudges each ion to either fluoresce or not—a flash of binary code that detectors read out as the computation’s solution.

From Science Magazine • May 30, 2024

They're the reason you see an actual picture at the top of this webpage, rather than just an incomprehensible scramble of space data and binary code.

From Salon • Mar. 28, 2024

A kind of binary code made up of just two symbols.

From Scientific American • Oct. 12, 2023

In living systems, genes act as a biological version of binary code, using the letters A, C, G, and T instead of ones and zeroes to spell out cellular marching orders.

From Science Daily • Sep. 28, 2023

“I mean, binary code? Doesn’t that seem kind of obvious? Especially coming from a computer geek like you.”

From "Book Scavenger" by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman

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