macro

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

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

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

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, →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.

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.

1959, shortened form of macroinstruction.

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, 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.

• 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.

• macro expansion
• template

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

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

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

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

1. (literary) thin, skinny, scrawny

   Synonym: magro

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

From the clipping of various terms.

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

macro (invariable)

1. (photography) Clipping of macrofotografico

macro f (invariable)

1. (computing) Clipping of macroistruzione

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

Unadapted borrowing from French macro, from maquereau.

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

macro m (invariable)

1. (slang) pimp

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

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

• Marco, croma, marco, marcò

macrō

1. dative/ablative masculine/neuter singular of macer

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

• Rhymes: -akɾu
• Hyphenation: ma‧cro

macro m (plural macros)

1. Alternative form of mácron

macro f or m (plural macros)

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

macro n (plural macrouri)

1. Alternative form of macrou

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

macro m (plural macros)

1. (computing) macro

• “macro”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014