INITIALIZATION

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does initialization mean? 

• INITIALIZATION (noun)
  The noun INITIALIZATION has 1 sense:

1. (computer science) the format of sectors on the surface of a hard disk drive so that the operating system can access them and setting a starting position

  Familiarity information: INITIALIZATION used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• INITIALIZATION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(computer science) the format of sectors on the surface of a hard disk drive so that the operating system can access them and setting a starting position

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

initialisation; initialization; low-level formatting

Hypernyms ("initialization" is a kind of...):

data format; data formatting; format; formatting (the organization of information according to preset specifications (usually for computer processing))

Domain category:

computer science; computing (the branch of engineering science that studies (with the aid of computers) computable processes and structures)

Derivation:

initialize (divide (a disk) into marked sectors so that it may store data)

initialize (assign an initial value to a computer program)