COMPILER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does compiler mean? 

• COMPILER (noun)
  The noun COMPILER has 2 senses:

1. a person who compiles information (as for reference purposes)

2. (computer science) a program that decodes instructions written in a higher order language and produces an assembly language program

  Familiarity information: COMPILER used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• COMPILER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A person who compiles information (as for reference purposes)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

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

author; writer (writes (books or stories or articles or the like) professionally (for pay))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "compiler"):

encyclopaedist; encyclopedist (a person who compiles information for encyclopedias)

lexicographer; lexicologist (a compiler or writer of a dictionary; a student of the lexical component of language)

Derivation:

compile (put together out of existing material)

Sense 2

Meaning:

(computer science) a program that decodes instructions written in a higher order language and produces an assembly language program

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

compiler; compiling program

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

computer program; computer programme; program; programme ((computer science) a sequence of instructions that a computer can interpret and execute)

Meronyms (parts of "compiler"):

parser (a computer program that divides code up into functional components)

Domain category:

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

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "compiler"):

C compiler (a compiler for programs written in C)

Fortran compiler (a compiler for programs written in FORTRAN)

LISP compiler (a compiler for programs written in LISP)

Pascal compiler (a compiler for programs written in Pascal)

Derivation:

compile (use a computer program to translate source code written in a particular programming language into computer-readable machine code that can be executed)

 Context examples 

I am not a bad compiler, Copperfield, said Traddles, preserving the same air of cheerful confidence in all he said, but I have no invention at all; not a particle.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)