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macro
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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English
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
1933, from macro-, from French, from Latin, from Ancient Greek μακρός (makrós, “long”).
Adjective
macro (not comparable)
- Very large in scope or scale.
- Antonym: micro
- 1999, Katharine Gates, Deviant Desires: Incredibly Strange Sex, page 115:
- Crumb's sexual fixation on gigantic women's legs became a major feature of his most celebrated images. Despite the common themes among macrophiles, Ed Lundt believes that no two macro fantasies are quite alike […]
- 2022 November 2, Brian X. Chen, “Personal Tech Has Changed. So Must Our Coverage of It.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
- But simply turning off iCloud backups was an incomplete solution. The macro problem, I wrote in my column last year, is that people have sacrificed ownership and control of their data.
- (cooking, colloquial) Clipping of macrobiotic.
- 2015, Elizabeth Stein, Eating Purely:
- While there are many aspects to this way of living, the actual “diet” focuses on whole foods, consumed in traditional methods. A typical macro bowl includes grains, beans, steamed veggies, sea vegetables, and fermented foods.
Translations
Noun
macro (countable and uncountable, plural macros)
- (colloquial, nutrition, countable, chiefly in the plural) Clipping of macronutrient.
- 2018, Spencer Langley, Flex Life: How to Transform Your Body Forever, Flex Life Inc., →ISBN, page 81:
- Don't be afraid to include some “unhealthy” foods in your diet. The overarching rule about foods is if it fits your macros (IIFYM), then you can eat it. That means you can eat chocolate, ice cream, and many other indulgences […]
- (colloquial, economics, uncountable) Clipping of macroeconomics.
- 2019 January 28, Seth Fiegerman, “Apple earnings: How low can iPhone sales go?”, in CNN Business:
- On Monday, chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA) cut its sales outlook for the fourth quarter, citing “deteriorating macroeconomic conditions, particularly in China.” Last week, Intel’s (INTC) CEO also noted that “trade and macro concerns, especially in China, have intensified.”
- (colloquial, photography, countable) Ellipsis of macro lens.
- 1980, Popular Science, volume 217, number 6, page 94:
- Most macros are made by camera manufacturers to fit their cameras
- 2008, Richard Satterlie, Agnes Hahn:
- The lens was a macro, capable of everything from an “infinity shot” to a close-up in which a single fingerprint filled the entire frame.
- (colloquial, countable) Clipping of macrophile.
Etymology 2
Attested 1959, shortened from macroinstruction.
Noun
macro (plural macros)
- (programming) A comparatively human-friendly abbreviation of complex input to a computer program.
- The preprocessor expands any embedded macros into source code before it is compiled.
- 1998, Dr. Cat, “Furry web site plug”, in alt.fan.furry (Usenet):
- There's also a spam filter in the code now, so if someone attempts to flood people's screens with macros or a bot, everything after the first few lines is thrown away.
- 2010, Debasish Ghosh, DSLs in Action, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN:
- Languages belonging to the Lisp family make use of macros to provide support for compile-time metaprogramming.
- 2021, Dean Wampler, chapter 24, in Programming Scala, 3rd edition, O'Reilly, →ISBN:
- This should make intuitive sense because the purpose of the macro system is to transform code from one valid form to a final form, such as inserting logic automatically that would otherwise have been written explicitly.
Usage notes
- Often used attributively; a macro language is the syntax for defining new macros; while macro expansion refers to the task of replacing the human-friendly version with a machine-readable version; a macro virus is a computer virus written in a macro language. Individual macros are sometimes referred to as macro functions, particularly when they accept parameters.
- The distinction between a macro language and a programming language is imprecise. Often a macro language is designed to allow one to customise one particular program, whereas a programming language is designed for writing entirely new programs.
- In the programming language Lisp, a macro is a function that creates and returns unevaluated code, unlike a regular function which evaluates code.
- Whereas a shortcut is particularly easy to use, widely supported, and designed for normal users, macro systems are normally designed for power users.
Derived terms
Translations
an abbreviation of complicated input
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See also
Verb
macro (third-person singular simple present macros, present participle macroing, simple past and past participle macroed) (informal)
- (intransitive) To use a macro.
- 1998 July 20, d cundiff, “GMs....”, in alt.games.ultima-online (Usenet), archived from the original on 5 December 2025:
- After i got ressirected[sic] the stat loss hit me hard, i macroed for a few days, sparred with some friends, and my skills were soon back up.
- 1999 March 16, Andrew Blackwell, “Help : Healing”, in rec.games.computer.ultima.online (Usenet), archived from the original on 5 December 2025:
- Do this poison thing gradually increasing potency until you hit about 78 then macro on a ghost to GM
- 2000 December 2, Rich, “dag-nabit makes yet another confession”, in microsoft.public.games.zone.asherons_call (Usenet), archived from the original on 5 December 2025:
- Ok, i have to admit i macroed for 3 lvls to get my magic defence sorted :(
- (transitive) To use a macro on (something).
- 1999 March 16, Andrew Blackwell, “Help : Healing”, in rec.games.computer.ultima.online (Usenet), archived from the original on 5 December 2025:
- He said he macroed anatomy from 0 to about 80 and his healing went from the 52 he started with to 58.2.
- 2001 January 15, Peter Duniho, “Some really lame things go on in this game”, in microsoft.public.games.zone.asherons_call (Usenet), archived from the original on 5 December 2025:
- For that matter, you can do something by killing the character being macroed. :) It IS Darktide after all.
- 2003 December 9, Graeme Faelban, “How I cast spells with my cleric”, in alt.games.everquest (Usenet), archived from the original on 5 December 2025:
- Same here, macroed my really gimp CH, none of the others.
Derived terms
Etymology 3
Noun
macro (uncountable)
- (gaming) Short for macromanagement.
Anagrams
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Italian
Etymology 1
Learned borrowing from Latin macrum (“lean, skinny”). Doublet of magro.
Pronunciation
Adjective
macro (feminine macra, masculine plural macri, feminine plural macre)
Related terms
Further reading
- macro1 in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana
Etymology 2
From the clipping of various terms.
Pronunciation
Adjective
macro (invariable)
Noun
macro f (invariable)
Further reading
- macro2 in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana
Etymology 3
Unadapted borrowing from French macro, from maquereau.
Pronunciation
Noun
macro m (invariable)
Further reading
- macro3 in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana
Anagrams
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Latin
Adjective
macrō
References
- “macro”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
Portuguese
Etymology 1
Pronunciation
- Hyphenation: ma‧cro
Noun
macro f or m (plural macros)
Etymology 2
Noun
macro m (plural macros)
- alternative form of mácron
Further reading
- “macro”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2025
- “macro”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2025
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Romanian
Noun
macro n (plural macrouri)
- alternative form of macrou
Declension
Spanish
Pronunciation
Noun
macro m (plural macros)
Further reading
- “macro”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024
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