Word.ws English Dictionary

dangling pointer

dangling pointer noun: a pointer (variable that holds the address of a memory location) that does not reference a valid object.

Noun

dangling pointer (plural dangling pointers)

  1. (broadly) A pointer (variable that holds the address of a memory location) that does not reference a valid object.
    Synonyms:
    wild pointer
  2. (strictly) A pointer referencing memory that was previously deallocated.

Synonyms of dangling pointer

Forms of dangling pointer

pluraldangling pointers

Questions about dangling pointer

What does dangling pointer mean?
Dangling pointer means a pointer (variable that holds the address of a memory location) that does not reference a valid object.
What part of speech is dangling pointer?
Dangling pointer is a noun.
What is the plural of dangling pointer?
The plural of dangling pointer is dangling pointers.

Words near dangling pointer in the dictionary

  1. dangling links
  2. dangling modifier
  3. dangling modifiers
  4. dangling participle
  5. dangling participles
  6. dangling pointer
  7. dangling pointers
  8. dangling the Dunlops
  9. danglingly
  10. danglings
  11. Danglish

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dangling pointer (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “dangling pointer.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dangling_pointer. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.