Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun
- the act or practice of instructing or teaching; education.
- knowledge or information imparted.
- an item of such knowledge or information.
- Usually instructions. orders or directions: The instructions are on the back of the box.
- the act of furnishing with authoritative directions.
- Computers. a command given to a computer to carry out a particular operation.
noun
- a direction; order
- the process or act of imparting knowledge; teaching; education
- computing a part of a program consisting of a coded command to the computer to perform a specified function
1801, from instruction + -al (1).
c.1400, instruccioun, “action or process of teaching,” from Old French instruccion (14c.), from Latin instructionem (nominative instructio) “building, arrangement, teaching,” from past participle stem of instruere “arrange, inform, teach,” from in- “on” (see in- (2)) + struere “to pile, build” (see structure (n.)). Meaning “an authoritative direction telling someone what to do; a document giving such directions,” is early 15c. Related: Instructions.
- A sequence of bits that tells a computer’s central processing unit to perform a particular operation. An instruction can also contain data to be used in the operation.