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binary

adjective · noun

Simple meaning

Being in one of two mutually exclusive states.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

byneree

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈbaɪnɚi

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. Being in one of two mutually exclusive states.

  2. Having two equally important parts; related to something with two parts.

  3. arithmeticcomputing

    Concerning numbers and calculations using the binary number system.

  4. computing

    Of data, consisting coded values (e.g. machine code) not interpretable as plain or ASCII text (e.g. source code).

noun

  1. A state in which only two values are possible, in which something must have one value or the other.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A2 · Elementary (estimated)
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Varies by meaning

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Being in one of two mutually exclusive states.

Used this way, binary is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use binary

  • “Computers use binary code, which is a system of ones and zeros.”

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Concerning / pertaining

binary systembinary number

Having two equally important parts

binary relation

Data

binary databinary code

Other combinations

binary treebinary oppositionbinary form

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • binary arithmetic operationnounCompound term

    An operation that follows the rules of Boolean algebra.

  • binary codenounCompound term

    Code using a string of 8 binary digits to represent characters.

  • binary compoundnounCompound term

    Chemical compound composed of only two elements.

  • binary digitnounCompound term

    Either 0 or 1 in binary notation.

  • binary filenounCompound term

    A computer file containing machine-readable information that must be read by an application.

  • binary notationnounCompound term

    Any notation that uses 2 characters (usually 0 and 1).

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.