"Backus-Naur form" meaning in English

See Backus-Naur form in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /bækəs naʊə fɔːm/ [Received-Pronunciation], /bækəs naʊɚ fɔɹm/ [General-American] Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-Backus-Naur form.wav Forms: Backus-Naur forms [plural]
Etymology: From the names of computer science pioneers John Backus and Peter Naur. The notation was developed by Backus in 1959 (as Backus normal form) to describe computer languages, specifically ALGOL 58, and expanded and used by Naur in the ALGOL 60 report (the result of a January 1960 meeting). The name change to Backus-Naur form was at the suggestion of Donald Knuth. Head templates: {{en-noun|~|head=Backus-Naur form}} Backus-Naur form (countable and uncountable, plural Backus-Naur forms)
  1. (computing) A formal notation for context-free grammars. Wikipedia link: ALGOL 58, ALGOL 60, Backus-Naur form, Communications of the ACM, Donald Knuth, International Organization for Standardization, John Backus, Peter Naur, World Wide Web Consortium Tags: countable, uncountable Categories (topical): Computing Synonyms (formal notation): Backus normal form [obsolete], BNF [abbreviation] Derived forms (formal notation): augmented Backus-Naur form (alt: ABNF), extended Backus-Naur form (alt: EBNF) Related terms: Chomsky normal form, metasyntax Translations (a formal notation for context-free grammars): formo de Backus-Naur (Esperanto), Backus-Naur-ritháttur [masculine] (Icelandic), Backus-Naur ritháttur [masculine] (Icelandic)

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for Backus-Naur form meaning in English (4.9kB)

{
  "etymology_text": "From the names of computer science pioneers John Backus and Peter Naur. The notation was developed by Backus in 1959 (as Backus normal form) to describe computer languages, specifically ALGOL 58, and expanded and used by Naur in the ALGOL 60 report (the result of a January 1960 meeting). The name change to Backus-Naur form was at the suggestion of Donald Knuth.",
  "forms": [
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      "name": "en-noun"
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
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      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
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          "source": "w"
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      "derived": [
        {
          "alt": "ABNF",
          "sense": "formal notation",
          "word": "augmented Backus-Naur form"
        },
        {
          "alt": "EBNF",
          "sense": "formal notation",
          "word": "extended Backus-Naur form"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1991, Bernd Teufel, Organization of Programming Languages, Springer, page 26",
          "text": "While context-free grammars (which, by the way, directly correspond to Backus-Naur forms) define the syntax of declarations, statements, and expressions, etc. (i.e. the structure of a program), the regular grammars define the syntax of identifiers, numbers, strings, etc. (i.e., the basic symbols of the language).",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "text": "2004, Jason H. Moore, Lance W. Hahn, Systems Biology Modeling in Human Genetics Using Petri Nets and Grammatical Evolution, Kalyanmoy Deb, et. al. (editors), Genetic and Evolutionary Computation, GECCO 2004, Proceedings, Part 1, Springer, LNCS 3102, page 396,\nHere, a Backus-Naur Form (BNF) grammar is specified that allows a computer program or model to be constructed by a simple genetic algorithm operating on an array of bits."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2011, Airi Salminen, Frank Tompa, Communicating with XML, Springer, page 215",
          "text": "The most common syntactic metalanguage adopted in the computing world is Extended Backus-Naur Form (EBNF). There are many slightly different variants of EBNF, but all of them are based on Backus-Naur Form (BNF), developed in the 1960s for describing the syntax of the Fortran and Algol 60 programming languages.",
          "type": "quotation"
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        "A formal notation for context-free grammars."
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      "id": "en-Backus-Naur_form-en-noun-FYc~2hl5",
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(computing) A formal notation for context-free grammars."
      ],
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        {
          "word": "Chomsky normal form"
        },
        {
          "word": "metasyntax"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "sense": "formal notation",
          "tags": [
            "obsolete"
          ],
          "word": "Backus normal form"
        },
        {
          "sense": "formal notation",
          "tags": [
            "abbreviation"
          ],
          "word": "BNF"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "countable",
        "uncountable"
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      "topics": [
        "computing",
        "engineering",
        "mathematics",
        "natural-sciences",
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        "sciences"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "eo",
          "lang": "Esperanto",
          "sense": "a formal notation for context-free grammars",
          "word": "formo de Backus-Naur"
        },
        {
          "code": "is",
          "lang": "Icelandic",
          "sense": "a formal notation for context-free grammars",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "Backus-Naur-ritháttur"
        },
        {
          "code": "is",
          "lang": "Icelandic",
          "sense": "a formal notation for context-free grammars",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "Backus-Naur ritháttur"
        }
      ],
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        "ALGOL 58",
        "ALGOL 60",
        "Backus-Naur form",
        "Communications of the ACM",
        "Donald Knuth",
        "International Organization for Standardization",
        "John Backus",
        "Peter Naur",
        "World Wide Web Consortium"
      ]
    }
  ],
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      "tags": [
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      ]
    },
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      "ipa": "/bækəs naʊɚ fɔɹm/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
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    }
  ],
  "word": "Backus-Naur form"
}
{
  "derived": [
    {
      "alt": "ABNF",
      "sense": "formal notation",
      "word": "augmented Backus-Naur form"
    },
    {
      "alt": "EBNF",
      "sense": "formal notation",
      "word": "extended Backus-Naur form"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From the names of computer science pioneers John Backus and Peter Naur. The notation was developed by Backus in 1959 (as Backus normal form) to describe computer languages, specifically ALGOL 58, and expanded and used by Naur in the ALGOL 60 report (the result of a January 1960 meeting). The name change to Backus-Naur form was at the suggestion of Donald Knuth.",
  "forms": [
    {
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      "tags": [
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "Chomsky normal form"
    },
    {
      "word": "metasyntax"
    }
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        "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
        "English eponyms",
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        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English uncountable nouns",
        "Terms with Esperanto translations",
        "Terms with Icelandic translations",
        "en:Computing"
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1991, Bernd Teufel, Organization of Programming Languages, Springer, page 26",
          "text": "While context-free grammars (which, by the way, directly correspond to Backus-Naur forms) define the syntax of declarations, statements, and expressions, etc. (i.e. the structure of a program), the regular grammars define the syntax of identifiers, numbers, strings, etc. (i.e., the basic symbols of the language).",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "text": "2004, Jason H. Moore, Lance W. Hahn, Systems Biology Modeling in Human Genetics Using Petri Nets and Grammatical Evolution, Kalyanmoy Deb, et. al. (editors), Genetic and Evolutionary Computation, GECCO 2004, Proceedings, Part 1, Springer, LNCS 3102, page 396,\nHere, a Backus-Naur Form (BNF) grammar is specified that allows a computer program or model to be constructed by a simple genetic algorithm operating on an array of bits."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2011, Airi Salminen, Frank Tompa, Communicating with XML, Springer, page 215",
          "text": "The most common syntactic metalanguage adopted in the computing world is Extended Backus-Naur Form (EBNF). There are many slightly different variants of EBNF, but all of them are based on Backus-Naur Form (BNF), developed in the 1960s for describing the syntax of the Fortran and Algol 60 programming languages.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A formal notation for context-free grammars."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
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        [
          "notation",
          "notation"
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          "context-free grammar"
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(computing) A formal notation for context-free grammars."
      ],
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        "countable",
        "uncountable"
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        "computing",
        "engineering",
        "mathematics",
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        "ALGOL 60",
        "Backus-Naur form",
        "Communications of the ACM",
        "Donald Knuth",
        "International Organization for Standardization",
        "John Backus",
        "Peter Naur",
        "World Wide Web Consortium"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
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      "ipa": "/bækəs naʊə fɔːm/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/bækəs naʊɚ fɔɹm/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-Backus-Naur form.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/65/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Persent101-Backus-Naur_form.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Persent101-Backus-Naur_form.wav.mp3",
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    }
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  "synonyms": [
    {
      "sense": "formal notation",
      "tags": [
        "obsolete"
      ],
      "word": "Backus normal form"
    },
    {
      "sense": "formal notation",
      "tags": [
        "abbreviation"
      ],
      "word": "BNF"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "eo",
      "lang": "Esperanto",
      "sense": "a formal notation for context-free grammars",
      "word": "formo de Backus-Naur"
    },
    {
      "code": "is",
      "lang": "Icelandic",
      "sense": "a formal notation for context-free grammars",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "Backus-Naur-ritháttur"
    },
    {
      "code": "is",
      "lang": "Icelandic",
      "sense": "a formal notation for context-free grammars",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "Backus-Naur ritháttur"
    }
  ],
  "word": "Backus-Naur form"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-06-23 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-06-20 using wiktextract (1b9bfc5 and 0136956). 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.

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