line noise

noun

Spurious characters due to signal noise in a communications link.

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Meanings

nounline noise (uncountable)
  1. uncountablecomputingSpurious characters due to signal noise in a communications link.
  2. uncountablecomputingData that looks random, as when outputting a binary file as text.
  3. derogatoryuncountablecomputingIncomprehensible source code or other textual material (often due to terseness or overuse of operators).

    2000, Simon Cozens, Ten Perl Myths, perl.com, In short, Perl doesn't write illegible Perl, people do. If you can stop yourself being one of them, we can agree that Perl's reputation for looking like line noise is no more than a myth.

Cite this entry
APA

line noise. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/line%20noise

MLA

“line noise.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/line%20noise. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “line noise,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/line%20noise.

Source: line noise on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.