ASCII

American  

[as-kee] / ˈæs ki /

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.

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ASCII British  

/ ˈæskiː /

acronym

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

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ASCII Scientific  

/ 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

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ASCII Cultural  

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.

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Etymology

Origin of ASCII

First recorded in 1960–65

Example Sentences

The meme suggests ASCII, a method of rendering characters using either seven or eight binary digits.

From Slate • Apr. 17, 2013

Baudot’s code developed the principle that eventually became the basis for ASCII, or the American Standard Code for Information Interchange, which is the way in which nearly every computer and phone now represents text.

From Slate • Dec. 7, 2012

I know it's a bone of contention, but we probably need to explore moving away from ASCII.

From The Project Gutenberg FAQ 2002 by Tinsley, Jim

In ASCII, the letter "A" is stored as 01000001, whether the computer is made by IBM, Apple or Commodore.

From Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet by Electronic Frontier Foundation

The British pound sign cannot be expressed in ASCII, but is very common in the works of English novelists.

From The Project Gutenberg FAQ 2002 by Tinsley, Jim