compiler

[kuh m-pahy-ler]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR compiler ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a person who compiles.

Also called compiling routine. Computers. a computer program that translates a program written in a high-level language into another language, usually machine language.Compare interpreter(def 3a).

Origin of compiler

1300–50; Middle English compilour < Anglo-French; Old French compileor < Late Latin compīlātōr-. See compile, -er²

Related formspre·com·pil·er, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for compiler

connoisseur, hobbyist, linguist, fancier, authority, antiquarian, finder, antiquary, accumulator, gatherer, compiler, author, lexicologist, editor, definer

Examples from the Web for compiler

Contemporary Examples of compiler

Today, Cunard is best known as the compiler and publisher of Negro: An Anthology (1934).
What Can You Learn About Writers From Their Personal Libraries?
Richard Oram
September 17, 2013
Jacobus, né Jacopo, was a 13th-century Genoan archbishop and compiler of what we might call Lies of the Saints.
Twelve Unusual Christmas Reads
Stefan Beck
December 25, 2011

Historical Examples of compiler

This story was first put about by the compiler of "The Lives of the Poets," in 1753.
The Man Shakespeare
Frank Harris
The author and compiler of this work is the editor of "Yachting."
Taxidermy
Leon Luther Pray
It would appear that Aretaeus is not an independent writer, but mainly a compiler.
The Legacy of Greece
Various
Here the compiler leaves his task: the inferences may be drawn by experts.
The Valet's Tragedy and Other Stories
Andrew Lang
You are not a reporter; not a compiler of dossiers; not a photographer.
A History of the French Novel, Vol. 2
George Saintsbury

British Dictionary definitions for compiler

compiler

noun

a person who collects or compiles something

a computer program by which a high-level programming language, such as COBOL or FORTRAN, is converted into machine language that can be acted upon by a computerCompare assembler

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

Word Origin and History for compiler

early 14c., from Anglo-French compilour, Old French compileur "author, chronicler," from Latin compilatorem, agent noun from compilare (see compile). Another form of the word current in early Modern English was compilator, directly from the Latin.

compiler in Science

compiler

[kəm-pī′lər]

A computer program associated with certain programming languages that converts the instructions written in those languages into machine code that can later be executed directly by a computer. See more at programming language.