The Memory Management Glossary
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Structure of entries

Each entry contains a brief definition. It may also contain:

• A list of exact synonyms and alternative spellings;
• A longer explanation;
• Similar terms (that is, rough synonyms);
• Opposites (that is, rough antonyms);
• Relevant entries in our bibliography;
• A list of other glossed terms that may be useful to understand the term;
• Links to relevant external sites.

For terms that are exact synonyms of each other, the brief definition is repeated under all the terms, but the reader is referred to the primary term for full details.

Please note that the bibliographic links lead to the full bibliography [63 kB].

We aim to be accurate, comprehensible, and useful, and also to have an entry for all common memory management terms. If you can't find the term you're looking for, if our definition doesn't help you, or if you'd like to suggest corrections or additions, please let us know via our feedback page.

Linking to definitions

If you wish to include a link to The Memory Management Glossary from your own pages, please use a URL of the form: http://www.memorymanagement.org/glossary/x.html#term, where x is the initial letter of the term (lowercased), and term is the term with spaces (" ") replaced by periods (".") and all letters in lowercase. Note that terms that are alternative spellings should be linked to the primary entry.

For example, a link to "Cheney collector" would be: <URL:http://www.memorymanagement.org/glossary/c.html#cheney.collector>. If the term has several senses, then the appropriate sense should be given at the end of the term, following a hyphen. For example, to refer to the first sense of "byte" (byte⁽¹⁾), use the link: <URL:http://www.memorymanagement.org/glossary/b.html#byte-1>.