built-in

Adjective

Synonyms: constitutional inbuilt inherent integral

WordNet 3.0

Adjective (1)

existing as an essential constituent or characteristic“the Ptolemaic system with its built-in concept of periodicity”“a constitutional inability to tell the truth”Synonyms: constitutional inbuilt inherent integral

Free On-line Dictionary of Computing

built-in

(Or "primitive") A built-in function or operator is one provided by the lowest level of a language implementation. This usually means it is not possible (or efficient) to express it in the language itself. Typical examples are the basic arithmetic and Boolean operators (in C syntax: +, -, *, /, %, !, &&, ||), bit manipulation operators (~, &, |, ^) and I/O primitives. Other common functions may be provided in libraries but are not built-in if they are written in the language being implemented.

(1995-02-14)