synchronous

comparative more synchronous · superlative most synchronous

1. At the same time, at the same frequency.

   There is a synchronous tie between the motors in each machine room to ensure that the span remains level during raising and lowering.

   1960 June 28, “New Lifting Bridge at Kings Ferry”, in Railway Magazine, page 388

   2 more examples

   But in these pictures it was possible for all the incidents to coexist at the one moment. In the 'Release of Peter' this was not possible. The waking and astonished soldiers to the left might be looking upon the miracle of the centre, but the escape of the Apostle over their recumbent bodies could not be synchronous with either of the other scenes

   1909, Adolf Paul Oppé, Raphael, London: Methuen, page 151

   Neither are good looks any criterion; and vulgarity, or at least what a given community terms so, does not necessarily impair certain mysterious characteristics, the fey grace, the elusive, shifty, soul-shattering, insidious charm that separates the nymphet from such coevals of hers as are incomparably more dependent on the spatial world of synchronous phenomena than on that intangible island of entranced time where Lolita plays with her likes.

   1955 September 15, Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita, Paris: The Olympia Press […], →OCLC

   Synonyms: simultaneous, in phase, in sync, in step, synchronised, nonasynchronous, metachronous · Antonyms: asynchronous, antisynchronous

2. computingInteracting with other elements in series; blocking; interacting with the same program or thread as other operations, thereby preventing those operations from resuming until the operation of interest is complete.

   Post is a “fire and forget” where the UI thread work is performed asynchronously; Send is synchronous in that the call blocks until the UI thread work has been performed.

   2014, Richard Blewett, Andrew Clymer, Pro Asynchronous Programming with .NET, page 25

   Synonyms: blocking, modal · Antonyms: asynchronous