Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

backus-naur form

/bækəs naʊɚ fɔɹm/

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.33 in modern English

Syllables: backus--nau-r -form
IPA: /bækəs naʊɚ fɔɹm/

27

Scrabble Score

14

Letters

5

Syllables

11

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

A formal notation for context-free grammars.

Countable; Uncountable

Example Sentences

"While context-free grammars (which, by the way, directly correspond to Backus-Naur forms) define the syntax of declarations, statements, and expressions, etc. (i.e. the structure of a program), the regular grammars define the syntax of identifiers, numbers, strings, etc. (i.e., the basic symbols of the language)."
"2004, Jason H. Moore, Lance W. Hahn, Systems Biology Modeling in Human Genetics Using Petri Nets and Grammatical Evolution, Kalyanmoy Deb, et. al. (editors), Genetic and Evolutionary Computation, GECCO 2004, Proceedings, Part 1, Springer, LNCS 3102, page 396, Here, a Backus-Naur Form (BNF) grammar is specified that allows a computer program or model to be constructed by a simple genetic algorithm operating on an array of bits."
"The most common syntactic metalanguage adopted in the computing world is Extended Backus-Naur Form (EBNF). There are many slightly different variants of EBNF, but all of them are based on Backus-Naur Form (BNF), developed in the 1960s for describing the syntax of the Fortran and Algol 60 programming languages."

Etymology

From the names of computer science pioneers John Backus and Peter Naur. The notation was developed by Backus in 1959 (as Backus normal form) to describe computer languages, specifically ALGOL 58, and expanded and used by Naur in the ALGOL 60 report (the result of a January 1960 meeting). The name change to Backus-Naur form was at the suggestion of Donald Knuth.

Regional Pronunciation

American English: /bækəs naʊɚ fɔɹm/
British English: /bækəs naʊə fɔːm/

Usage

Inflected Forms

Backus-Naur forms (plural)

Phrases

augmented Backus-Naur form extended Backus-Naur form Chomsky normal form

Frequently Paired Words

Chomsky normal form metasyntax

Synonyms

Backus normal form BNF

Questions

How do you pronounce backus-naur form?: The recorded pronunciation is /bækəs naʊɚ fɔɹm/.
What does backus-naur form mean?: A formal notation for context-free grammars.
Where does backus-naur form come from?: From the names of computer science pioneers John Backus and Peter Naur. The notation was developed by Backus in 1959 (as Backus normal form) to describe computer languages, specifically ALGOL 58, and expanded and used by Naur in the ALGOL 60 report (the result of a January 1960 meeting). The name change to Backus-Naur form was at the suggestion of Donald Knuth.

How to pronounce backus-naur form

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “backus-naur form”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/bækəs naʊɚ fɔɹm/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “backus-naur form”.
Repeat and practice — Say “backus-naur form” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.