adj · 1 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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Received-Pronunciation:/ˈɛn.dɪ.ən/
General-American:/ˈɛn.di.ən/
pin-pen-merger:/ˈɪn.di.ən/
Southern-England:Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
homophone: Indian (pin–pen merger)
1
adj
Meaning 1
Preceded by a qualifying word: of a computer: storing multibyte numbers with the most significant byte at a particular memory address; for example, at the smallest address (big-endian) or the largest address (little-endian).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
From end + -ian (suffix meaning ‘one from, belonging to, like, or relating to’ forming nouns, and meaning ‘from, like, or related to’ forming adjectives), originally in the noun Big-Endian coined by the Anglo-Irish author Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) in his novel Gulliver’s Travels (1726). Swift wrote of an emperor of Lilliput who, after his son cuts his finger when opening an egg at the large end, commands his subjects to open them at the small end; those who rebel by opening their eggs at the large end are called “Big-Endians”. The term was applied in the computing context by the Israeli-American computer scientist Danny Cohen (1937–2019) in 1980.
Across languages
Translations
1 source translations are retained for this English entry.
Finnish:
tavujärjestystä käyttävä
— of a computer: storing multibyte numbers with the most significant byte at a particular memory address
