Written by the Fiveable Content Team • Last updated September 2025
Verified for the 2026 exam
Verified for the 2026 exam•Written by the Fiveable Content Team • Last updated September 2025
Definition
Machine code is the lowest level of instructions that can be executed directly by a computer's hardware. It consists of binary digits (0s and 1s) representing specific operations performed by the processor.
Related terms
Assembly Language: A low-level programming language that uses mnemonic codes to represent machine instructions. It is a human-readable version of machine code.
Compiler: A software tool that translates high-level programming languages into machine code or assembly language so that computers can execute the program.
Instruction Set: The collection of all the instructions that a particular processor can execute. Each instruction performs a specific operation on data.