• superkret@feddit.orgEnglish
    572·
    7 days ago

    If you want a clear definition, ask a mathematician:

    A word is any written product of group elements and their inverses.

    Or a computer scientist:

    A word is a fixed-sized datum handled as a unit by the instruction set or the hardware of the processor.

    • affiliate@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      7 days ago

      i wonder what the inverse of the letters in the english alphabet are. since it has a non-prime number of letters (26 to be exact), we know that some letters won’t have inverses. i wonder which letters don’t have inverses. i guess it would be pretty easy to find out if you use the standard alphabet ordering and then port the alphabet over to ℤ/26ℤ, but that’s not a particularly satisfying answer.

    • Malgas@beehaw.orgEnglish
      3·
      6 days ago

      Or, in either field (formal language theory bridges both) it can mean any string of symbols, letters, or tokens.