Word.ws English Dictionary

non-printing character

non-printing character noun: synonym of control character.

Noun

non-printing character (plural non-printing characters)

  1. Synonym of control character.
    • It is my proposal that a "non-printing character" be placed in the typewriter keyboard and in the tape code. This non-printing character will be recognised only by the computing machine. When this character is struck on the keyboard, no printing occurs, but the tape is punched with the tape code...1960, Calvin N. Mooers, “The Use of Non-Printing Characters for Format Indication on Abstracts Transcribed on Machine Media”, in The "Tape Typewriter Plan": A Method for Cooperation in Documentation...
    • When CONTROL is pressed at the same time as another key, a non-printing character is created. In other words, you do not see a letter displayed on the screen.1989, Tillman J. Ragan, Patricia L. Smith, Programming Instructional Software, Educational Technology Publications, →ISBN, page 372

Examples of non-printing character in a sentence

  • It is my proposal that a "non-printing character" be placed in the typewriter keyboard and in the tape code.1960, Calvin N. Mooers, “The Use of Non-Printing Characters for Format Indication on Abstracts Transcribed on Machine Media”, in The "Tape...
  • Control Character -- Non-printing character used to format input or output on a VDU or printer, such as CR, rubout etc.2012, S. Eisenbach, C. Sadler, PASCAL for Programmers, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, →ISBN, page 189:

Synonyms of non-printing character

Forms of non-printing character

pluralnon-printing characters

Words formed from non-printing character

Questions about non-printing character

What does non-printing character mean?
Non-printing character means synonym of control character.
How do you use non-printing character in a sentence?
It is my proposal that a "non-printing character" be placed in the typewriter keyboard and in the tape code.
What part of speech is non-printing character?
Non-printing character is a noun.
What is the plural of non-printing character?
The plural of non-printing character is non-printing characters.

Words near non-printing character in the dictionary

  1. non-primary
  2. non-printable
  3. non-printable character
  4. non-printable characters
  5. non-printing
  6. non-printing character
  7. non-printing characters
  8. non-prisoner
  9. non-prisoners
  10. non-proceedable
  11. non-producer

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: non-printing character (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: “non-printing character.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/non-printing_character. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.