checksum

nounC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #14,974 of 15,258Too rare in one of the two pools to compare — fewer than 20 uses in speech or in writing

Other forms: checksums

A checksum is a number used to check that data arrived unchanged. Verify the checksum, the checksum failed, a checksum mismatch.

It works by computing a value from the data and comparing it at the other end, so any change gives a different number. A cryptographic one goes further, since it is built so that nobody can forge a file matching a given checksum.

Definitions of checksum

1nounchecksumA number used to check that data arrived unchanged.C1
“After downloading the file, compare its checksum with the one on the website.”

checksum is a number.

Where it comes from

Check plus sum, from summing the data to check it.

From check + sum.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Computing & Code

Practise this word

checksum in the wild

The procedure that generates this checksum is called a checksum function or checksum algorithm.
Checksum
Depending on its design goals, a good checksum algorithm usually outputs a significantly different value, even for small changes made to the input.
Checksum
UDP provides checksums for data integrity, and port numbers for addressing different functions at the source and destination of the datagram.
User Datagram Protocol
Adler-32 is a checksum algorithm written by Mark Adler in 1995, modifying Fletcher's checksum.
Adler-32
File verification is the process of using an algorithm for verifying the integrity of a computer file, usually by checksum.
File verification

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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