Word.ws English Dictionary

no-op

no-op noun: an instruction or operation that has no effect; a null operation.

Noun (1)

no-op (plural no-ops)

  1. An instruction or operation that has no effect; a null operation.
    • Points may be coincident and the number of specified points can be zero, in which case the function is a no-op.1991, Graham C. E. Winn, OS/2 Presentation Manager GPI
    • A JMP instruction qualifies as a no-op in this sense.1999, Donald Knuth, MMIXware: A RISC Computer for the Third Millennium
    Synonyms:
    nop

Adjective

no-op (not comparable)

  1. Having chosen not to undergo sex reassignment surgery.
    • Both ‘no-op’ interviewees hold relatively stable identities as TG and offer interesting perspectives on trans repudiation from a TG standpoint.2008, Christopher Shelley, “Introduction: Transpeople and the Problem of Re/Action”, in Transpeople: Repudiation, Trauma, Healing, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, →ISBN, page 12
    Synonyms:
    non-op

Noun (2)

no-op (plural no-ops)

  1. A transgender or transsexual person who has chosen not to undergo sex reassignment surgery.
    • At the time of the interviews, nineteen of the twenty interviewees were taking hormones; five were pre-operative; thirteen were postoperative; and two were ‘no-ops’ (no surgery intended at the time of interview).2008, Christopher Shelley, “Introduction: Transpeople and the Problem of Re/Action”, in Transpeople: Repudiation, Trauma, Healing, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, →ISBN, page 12
    Synonyms:
    non-op

no-op meaning in Tamil and Vietnamese

no-op in Tamil

அற்செயல்

no-op in Vietnamese

instruction or operation that has no significant effect
lệnh vô tác

Synonyms of no-op

Forms of no-op

pluralno-ops

Origin of no-op

Short for no operation (NOP), common assembly language instruction.

Short for no operation.

Questions about no-op

What does no-op mean?
No-op means an instruction or operation that has no effect; a null operation.
What is no-op in Tamil?
No-op in Tamil is அற்செயல். See No-op meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is no-op?
No-op can be a noun or an adjective.
What is the plural of no-op?
The plural of no-op is no-ops.

Words near no-op in the dictionary

  1. no-noes
  2. no-nonsense
  3. no-nonsensely
  4. no-nos
  5. no-one
  6. no-op
  7. no-ops
  8. no-par
  9. no-planer
  10. no-planers
  11. no-platform

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: no-op (page history and authors); no-op (Tamil Wiktionary) (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-no-op.oga.

Cite this entry: “no-op.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/no-op. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.