"magic number" meaning in All languages combined

See magic number on Wiktionary

Noun [English]

Forms: magic numbers [plural]
Head templates: {{en-noun}} magic number (plural magic numbers)
  1. (nuclear physics) The number of neutrons or protons in nuclei which are required to fill the major quantum shells, and thus produce exceptionally stable nuclei: 2, 8, 20, 28, 50, 82 and 126. Categories (topical): Nuclear physics
    Sense id: en-magic_number-en-noun-eimK8Ez1
  2. (sports) A metric used to determine a team's required performance to make the playoffs.
    The sum of one and the wins by one team and losses by an opponent necessary for the team to ensure the opponent cannot catch it in the standings by the end of the regular season. In Major League Baseball, with a regular season of 162 games, the magic number M is calculated as M = 163 - W₁ - L₂, in which W₁ is the leading team's current win total, and L₂ is the opponent's current loss total. A magic number of 0 indicates that the trailing team cannot catch the leading team.
    Categories (topical): Sports
    Sense id: en-magic_number-en-noun-8SvqtBHm Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 6 13 7 24 6 26 18 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 4 15 6 25 6 26 18 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 7 16 6 24 4 25 18 Topics: hobbies, lifestyle, sports
  3. (sports) A metric used to determine a team's required performance to make the playoffs.
    (by extension) The lowest such number that assures a team a playoff berth.
    Tags: broadly Categories (topical): Sports
    Sense id: en-magic_number-en-noun-3msPDjLK Topics: hobbies, lifestyle, sports
  4. (computing)
    A number which is manually entered into source code, rather than defined somewhere as a named constant; especially one which is arbitrary or lacks explanation.
    Categories (topical): Computing
    Sense id: en-magic_number-en-noun-M0kUAHYQ Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 6 13 7 24 6 26 18 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 4 15 6 25 6 26 18 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 7 16 6 24 4 25 18 Topics: computing, engineering, mathematics, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, sciences
  5. (computing)
    A sentinel value which cannot occur in normal use, typically used as a placeholder (e.g. a fictitious date such as 2000-02-32).
    Categories (topical): Computing
    Sense id: en-magic_number-en-noun-cjRwr37x Topics: computing, engineering, mathematics, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, sciences
  6. (computing)
    A hash code, such as those used by some webmail servers to keep track of sessions.
    Categories (topical): Computing
    Sense id: en-magic_number-en-noun-0CZv47UB Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 6 13 7 24 6 26 18 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 4 15 6 25 6 26 18 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 7 16 6 24 4 25 18 Topics: computing, engineering, mathematics, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, sciences
  7. (computing)
    A number or pattern in a binary file that identifies the filetype.
    Categories (topical): Computing
    Sense id: en-magic_number-en-noun-NIMb5WOs Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 6 13 7 24 6 26 18 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 4 15 6 25 6 26 18 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 7 16 6 24 4 25 18 Topics: computing, engineering, mathematics, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, sciences
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Coordinate_terms: magic word [computing, engineering, mathematics, sciences, physical-sciences, natural-sciences]

Inflected forms

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Download raw JSONL data for magic number meaning in All languages combined (5.5kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.