Register
A register is a device for storing data.
- Historically, a register was a sign or chalkboard onto which people would write cash transactions for later bookeeping, often with chalk. It can also be used to mean a paper register such as one would keep of a check book.
- To register a charity means to apply to the government for a non-profit organisation to be officially recognised as such, and thus gain more credibility and possible tax relief.
- In Britain births, deaths and marriages are registered at a registry office.
- The term is used in Australia and America as a short form for cash register, a device for tracking retail sales and known to the British as a till. This name came into use because the cash register generally replaced earlier registers in use.
- In digital circuits, a register is a component for storing information, such as a memory address, or the inputs or results of a computation. The origin of the name is similar. See processor register.
- In music, register is the relative "height" or range of a note, set of pitches or pitch classes, melody, part, instrument or group of instruments. For examples violins are in a higher register than cellos. A higher register indicates higher pitch.
- The Register is a technology news website.
- A register is a subset of a language used for a particular purpose or in a particular social setting. For example, the average English speaker will likely adhere more closely to prescribed grammar, pronounce gerunds and present participles with a /N/ sound, and refrain from using the word "ain't" when speaking in a formal setting, but the same person could violate all of those restrictions in an informal setting; these two varieties of speech are separate registers of English.
