checksum

American  

[chek-suhm] / ˈtʃɛkˌsʌm /

noun

Computers.

1. a string of characters derived from a piece of stored or transmitted digital data, used to determine whether that data has been corrupted or tampered with (often used attributively).

   The researchers crawled the website daily over four months but did not compare checksums of the returned pages, so we cannot rely on the integrity of that data.

   We have identified a problem with the previous checksum algorithm and provided a solution.

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Etymology

Origin of checksum

First recorded in 1935–40; check ¹ ( def. ) + sum ( def. )

Example Sentences

Lexmark designed their printer program so that it would not accept a toner cartridge unless it received the correct "checksum" or validation number.

From The Public Domain Enclosing the Commons of the Mind by Boyle, James