Turing machine

noun

Tu·​ring machine ˈtu̇r-iŋ- 

ˈtyu̇r-

: a hypothetical computing machine that by using only a limited set of very simple computational steps is able to perform any task for which an efficiently computable algorithm is known

Examples of Turing machine in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

It’s known that there’s no algorithm that can answer this for every Turing machine. —Joseph Howlett, WIRED, 9 Mar. 2025

Moore designed his pinball machine to complete the analogy to the Turing machine. —Charlie Wood, Quanta Magazine, 7 Mar. 2025

Universality and Task Robots Universality is essentially the idea that a Turing machine could complete the work of other Turing machines in a unified field theory of capability. —John Werner, Forbes, 24 Dec. 2024

The problem involves Turing machines, some of the simplest possible computing devices, first conceived by Alan Turing as a model for a general computer and now easily simulated online (opens a new tab). —Bill Andrews, Quanta Magazine, 19 Dec. 2024

These states determine how the Turing machine acts with each input. —Manon Bischoff, Scientific American, 25 July 2024

Sure, that leaves infinitely many such groups, since a Turing machine can have any number of rules. —Ben Brubaker, Quanta Magazine, 2 July 2024

The field dates back to 1936, when Alan Turing first imagined a fanciful device, now called a Turing machine, that could perform any computation by reading and writing symbols on an infinite tape. —Ben Brubaker, Quanta Magazine, 21 Mar. 2024

The hardware implementation of a Turing machine can be organized around a rule book and a notepad. —IEEE Spectrum, 27 May 2023

Word History

Etymology

A. M. Turing †1954 English mathematician

First Known Use

1937, in the meaning defined above

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