pushdown automaton
nounUK /ˈpʊʃdaʊn ɔːˈtɒmətən/
US /ˈpʊʃdaʊn ɔːˈtɑːmətən/
A pushdown automaton is a pretend machine that reads a string of symbols and uses a stack to remember things.
The teacher explained that a pushdown automaton can check whether parentheses in a sentence are balanced.
OTHER MEANINGS
2. A theoretical model in computer science used to recognize context-free languages.
Researchers proved that every context-free language is accepted by some pushdown automaton.
3. A type of abstract machine with a finite control and an unbounded stack memory.
The pushdown automaton differs from a finite automaton because it has an extra stack.
4. A mathematical device studied in automata theory for parsing and language recognition.
Students built a pushdown automaton to parse simple arithmetic expressions.