Algorithm

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈælɡəɹɪðm̩/

Definitions

1. A step-by-step procedure or set of rules designed to solve a problem or complete a specific task
2. A methodical sequence of operations or instructions used to solve a problem or perform a task efficiently
3. A series of ordered instructions for solving a problem or accomplishing a task

Etymology: The word goes back to a ninth-century Persian mathematician, Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī, whose name was Latinized into "algorismus." His name was a nisba, an Arabic adjective meaning roughly "the one from Khwarazm," a region of Central Asia known to the Greeks as Chorasmia. Medieval European scholars came to know his arithmetic treatises, which taught the decimal place-value system, and the Latin form of his name became a label for the step-by-step calculation methods those books described. Over the centuries the spelling drifted. Middle English had "algorisme" and "augrym," and the modern "th" appeared later, most likely through confusion with the Greek "arithmos," meaning number, which gave English "arithmetic." The result is a word that carries the name of a single scholar while looking like it belongs to the Greek family of number words.

Synonyms: procedure, formula, method, process, system