Other forms: algorithms
An algorithm is the exact step-by-step recipe a computer follows. A sorting algorithm, the recommendation algorithm, an algorithm decides.
It is just a defined procedure and predates computers by centuries — long division is one. In everyday talk the algorithm has come to mean whatever a platform uses to choose what you see, which is a much vaguer and more suspicious use.
1nounalgorithmThe exact step-by-step recipe a computer follows.
“The engineers wrote an algorithm that sorts thousands of photos by date in seconds.”
algorithm is a procedure.
From al-Khwarizmi, the ninth-century Persian mathematician, through Medieval Latin algorismus.
Arabic
الخَوَارِزْمِيّ
Medieval Latin
algorismus
Anglo-Norman
algorisme
Middle English
algorisme
English, today
algorithm
From arithmo-. From Middle English algorisme, augrym, from Anglo-Norman algorisme, augrim, from Medieval Latin algorismus, from Arabic الخَوَارِزْمِيّ, the nisba of Persian mathematician Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī and a toponymic name meaning "the Chorasmian". The spelling change (-s- > -th-) was influenced by unrelated ἀριθμός (whence arithmo-).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA