Word.ws English Dictionary

malloc

malloc noun: a subroutine in the C programming language's standard library for performing dynamic memory allocation.

Noun

malloc (plural mallocs)

  1. A subroutine in the C programming language's standard library for performing dynamic memory allocation.
    • It compares the behavior of nine different mallocs when used with Hummingbird and GNU Emacs dynamic memory activity traces.2001, USENIX Association, Proceedings of the FREENIX Track: 2001 USENIX Annual Technical Conference

Verb

malloc (third-person singular simple present mallocs, present participle mallocing, simple past and past participle malloced)

  1. To allocate memory using the C programming language malloc subroutine.

Forms of malloc

Noun
pluralmallocs
Verb
third-person singular presentmallocs
present participlemallocing
past participlemalloced
pastmalloced

Origin of malloc

Blend of map + allocate.

Questions about malloc

What does malloc mean?
Malloc means a subroutine in the C programming language's standard library for performing dynamic memory allocation.
What part of speech is malloc?
Malloc can be a noun or a verb.
What is the plural of malloc?
The plural of malloc is mallocs.

Words near malloc in the dictionary

  1. mallku
  2. mallkus
  3. Mallnitz
  4. Mallo
  5. Malloa
  6. malloc
  7. malloced
  8. Malloch
  9. Mallochs
  10. mallocing
  11. mallocs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: malloc (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.

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