Phrase guide

control character

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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No pronunciation record was provided for this word.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A character which does not have a direct visual appearance as a glyph, but rather causes some other action to occur, such as a transition to a new line.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: computing, engineering, mathematics, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, sciences

Examples

  • The tab, carriage return, and line feed are all control characters.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

ASCII characters to indicate carriage return or tab or backspace; typed by depressing a key and the control key at the same time

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: ASCII control character

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: ASCII character

Narrower terms: backspace character

History

Etymology

From control + character.

Across languages

Translations

15 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Arabic: شَخْص (šaḵṣ) — computing character
  • Czech: řídící znak — computing character
  • Esperanto: stirsigno — computing character
  • Esperanto: regsigno — computing character
  • Esperanto: signalo — computing character
  • Finnish: kontrollimerkki — computing character
  • German: Steuerzeichen — computing character
  • Greek: χαρακτήρας ελέγχου (charaktíras elénchou) — computing character
  • Japanese: 制御文字 (seigyo moji) — computing character
  • Polish: kod sterujący — computing character
  • Polish: znak sterujący — computing character
  • Romanian: caracter de control — computing character
  • Romanian: tastă de control — computing character
  • Russian: управля́ющий си́мвол (upravljájuščij símvol) — computing character
  • Spanish: carácter de control — computing character