noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   The character or character sequence that indicates the end of a line of text and transition to the next line; or, a control code or escape sequence used in a programming language to denote this character.

   "Microsoft Windows uses CRLF to represent a newline."

Synonyms

All synonyms

carriage returnendend-of-lineline breakline breakmul:\n

Example

More examples

"Microsoft Windows uses CRLF to represent a newline."

Etymology

From new + line, Coined by Bell Laboratories during development of the C programming language and the UNIX operating system.

Related phrases

control charactercontrol codeescape characterescape sequenceprogramming language

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.