Meaning & use
nop
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In computer programming, an instruction that performs no operation, used to occupy time, cause a delay, or fill space in a sequence of code.
See it in a sentence
The programmer inserted a nop between the two instructions to align the code to a four-byte boundary.
Attackers sometimes pad exploit code with a long string of nops known as a "nop sled."
A note on using this word
Short for "no operation"; it is one of the few instructions supported by nearly every processor architecture, precisely because it does nothing.
Words with a similar meaning
no-op
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