MAGIC NUMBER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does magic number mean? 

• MAGIC NUMBER (noun)
  The noun MAGIC NUMBER has 1 sense:

1. the atomic number of an extra stable strongly bound atomic nucleus: 2, 8, 20, 28, 50, 82 or 126

  Familiarity information: MAGIC NUMBER used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MAGIC NUMBER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The atomic number of an extra stable strongly bound atomic nucleus: 2, 8, 20, 28, 50, 82 or 126

Classified under:

Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure

Hypernyms ("magic number" is a kind of...):

atomic number (the order of an element in Mendeleyev's table of the elements; equal to the number of protons in the nucleus or electrons in the neutral state of an atom of an element)

 Context examples 

A file format consisting of a 10-byte header containing a magic number, a version number, and a timestamp, a Deflate-compressed body, and an 8-byte footer containing a checksum and the length of the original uncompressed data.

(gzip File Format, NCI Thesaurus)