descriptor

Noun

WordNet 3.0

Noun (2)

  1. the phonological or orthographic sound or appearance of a word that can be used to describe or identify something“the inflected forms of a word can be represented by a stem and a list of inflections to be attached”Synonyms: formword formsignifier
  2. a piece of stored information that is used to identify an item in an information storage and retrieval system
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Free On-line Dictionary of Computing

descriptor

<operating system> An integer, string or other small data value which refers to one of several objects allocated to a program by the operating system, usually the kernel. A common example is a Unix file descriptor which is a small integer that identifies an I/O channel. Another example is a reference to an area of memory (e.g. shared memory).

Compare capability.

(1998-02-06)

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