byteordermark
nounUK /ˈbaɪtˌɔːdə mɑːk/
US /ˈbaɪtˌɔːrdər mɑːrk/
A tiny hidden sign at the start of a computer file that tells the computer which way to read the letters and numbers.
The program checked the byte order mark before opening the text file.
RELATED WORDS
OTHER MEANINGS
2. A special code at the beginning of a data stream that shows whether the bytes are arranged from biggest to smallest or smallest to biggest.
The byte order mark revealed that the file used big-endian byte order.
3. An invisible marker that helps software recognize the character encoding of a document.
Some editors hide the byte order mark so it does not appear in the text.
4. A short sequence of bytes used to signal the start of a Unicode text file.
The byte order mark at the top of the file told the browser it was UTF-8.