machine code

British

noun

instructions for the processing of data in a binary, octal, or hexadecimal code that can be understood and executed by a computer

"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.

“The challenge can be trying to reproduce a precise set of instructions in machine code from a paper.”

From Nature • Dec. 19, 2019

“Knuth made it clear that the system could actually be understood all the way down to the machine code level,” said Dr. Norvig.

From New York Times • Dec. 17, 2018

When I was young, I used to solder circuits and assemble machine code by hand.

From Slate • Jan. 26, 2017

This includes reverse-engineering many products' machine code to turn it into a lower-level computer language that can be understood by humans.

From BBC • Sep. 23, 2015

Given the rise of machine code breaking and the general decline in smuggling, the “usefulness of my section was therefore in my opinion ended,” she stated.

From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield

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