macro

See also: Macro and macró

English

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈmæk.ɹoʊ/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmæk.ɹəʊ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Etymology 1

1933, from macro-, from French, from Latin, from Ancient Greek μακρός (makrós, “long”).

Adjective

macro (not comparable)

1. 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^[1], →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.

2. (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

very large in scale

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 宏- (zh) (hóng-)

• French: macro- (fr)
• German: makro- (de)
• Greek: μακρο- (el) (makro-)
• Hebrew: מאקרו־ (mákro)
• Russian: макро- (ru) (makro-)
• Telugu: స్థూల (te) (sthūla)

Noun

macro (countable and uncountable, plural macros)

1. (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 […]

2. (colloquial, economics, uncountable) Clipping of macroeconomics.
3. (colloquial, photography, countable) Short for 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.

Etymology 2

Attested 1959, shortened from macroinstruction.

Noun

macro (plural macros)

1. (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.

   • 2004, Paul Kimmel, Excel 2003 VBA Programmer's Reference, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 2:

     A recurring theme in this book is to record an Excel macro and then show how to adapt the recorded code.

   • 2010, Debasish Ghosh, DSLs in Action‎^[2], 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 customize one particular program, whereas a programming language is designed for writing entirely new programs.
• 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

• anaphoric macro
• image macro
• macro guard
• macro language

 

Translations

an abbreviation of complicated input

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 宏 (zh) (hóng), (Taiwan) 巨集 (zh) (jùjí)

• Czech: makro (cs) n
• Danish: makro c
• Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: makro (fi)
• French: macro (fr) f, macro-commande (fr) f
• German: Makro (de) n
• Greek: μακροεντολή f (makroentolí)
• Hebrew: מאקרו m (mákro)
• Hungarian: makró (hu)
• Icelandic: fjölvaskipun f, fjölvi m
• Japanese: マクロ (ja) (makuro)
• Korean: 매크로 (maekeuro)
• Maori: tonotono
• Marathi: मॅक्रो m (mĕkro)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: makro m

  Nynorsk: makro m

• Portuguese: macro (pt) f
• Russian: ма́крос (ru) m (mákros), макрокома́нда (ru) f (makrokománda)
• Spanish: macro (es) f
• Thai: please add this translation if you can

See also

• macro expansion
• template

Anagrams

• AMORC, Armco, Comar, Coram, Marco, carom, croma

Italian

Etymology 1

Learned borrowing from Latin macrum (“lean, skinny”). Doublet of magro.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈma.kro/
• Rhymes: -akro
• Hyphenation: mà‧cro

Adjective

macro (feminine macra, masculine plural macri, feminine plural macre)

1. (literary) thin, skinny, scrawny

   Synonym: magro

Related terms

• macie
• macilento

 

Further reading

• macro¹ in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Etymology 2

From the clipping of various terms.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈma.kro/
• Rhymes: -akro
• Hyphenation: mà‧cro

Adjective

macro (invariable)

1. (photography) Clipping of macrofotografico

Noun

macro f (invariable)

1. (computing) Clipping of macroistruzione

Further reading

• macro² in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Etymology 3

Unadapted borrowing from French macro, from maquereau.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /maˈkro/^*
• Rhymes: -o
• Hyphenation: ma‧cró

Noun

macro m (invariable)

1. (slang) pimp

   Synonyms: (literary) lenone, (Rome) pappa, (regional) pappone, protettore, ruffiano

Further reading

• macro³ in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Anagrams

• Marco, croma, marco, marcò

Latin

Adjective

macrō

1. dative/ablative masculine/neuter singular of macer

References

• “macro”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers

Portuguese

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈma.kɾu/

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈma.kɾu/
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈma.kɾo/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈma.kɾɔ/

• Hyphenation: ma‧cro

Noun

macro f or m (plural macros)

1. (computing) macro (abbreviation of complicated input)

Etymology 2

Noun

macro m (plural macros)

1. Alternative form of mácron

Romanian

Noun

macro n (plural macrouri)

1. Alternative form of macrou

Declension

	singular			plural
	indefinite	definite		indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	macro	macroul		macrouri	macrourile
genitive-dative	macro	macroului		macrouri	macrourilor
vocative	macroule			macrourilor

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmakɾo/ [ˈma.kɾo]
• Rhymes: -akɾo
• Syllabification: ma‧cro

Noun

macro m (plural macros)

1. (computing) macro

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], 2024 December 10