mutex means an object in a program that serves as a lock, used to negotiate mutual exclusion among threads. It carries an Arena rating of 1533, earned across 2 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, mutex ranks #7,864 of 17,100 for Most Elegant Words, #11,146 of 36,421 for Qualifying, #12,656 of 17,134 for Funniest Words.
mutex is pronounced /ˈmjuːtɛks/.
Why “mutex” is a great word
A programming object that locks a shared resource to ensure only one thread can access it at a time. Its name is a syllabic abbreviation of 'mutually exclusive' or 'mutual exclusion'. Unlike a semaphore—a more general gatekeeper that permits a controlled crowd from a shared pool—or a spinlock—a frantic, energy-burning loop of active waiting—the mutex is a solitary sentinel, granting exclusive passage to one and putting all others to sleep. It is the turnstile on a narrow footbridge, the single key to a private study, or the precise silence that falls over a meeting room when the door clicks shut; a small, deliberate imposition of order upon the ceaseless, concurrent hum of potential chaos.
Etymology
Syllabic abbreviation of mutually exclusive or mutual exclusion.
noun
- An object in a program that serves as a lock, used to negotiate mutual exclusion among threads.e.g.“The ability to set a maximum waiting time provides another reason why in some circumstances, you might prefer to use a mutex rather than a lock statement.”
verb
- To apply a mutex to.e.g.“Or you can have a single pipe that is mutexed so each thread can only write to the pipe exclusively. Alternatively, you can have each thread put the finished fd in a globally mutexed list.”
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- locking 70% match — The use of a lock or a mutex to restrict access to a part of the code to at most one process. vs mutex →
- oplock 52% match — An opportunistic lock on a file system object, used for caching purposes rather than to avoid modifications by multiple users at once. vs mutex →
- muter 45% match — Something that mutes sound. vs mutex →
- malloc 45% match — A subroutine in the C programming language's standard library for performing dynamic memory allocation. vs mutex →
- multithreading 44% match — The use of multithreaded code. vs mutex →
- multiusing 44% match — multiuser capability; the ability of a computer system to process requests from multiple users at the same time vs mutex →
- muset 43% match — A small hole or gap through which a wild animal passes; a muse. vs mutex →
- lockless 42% match — Without a lock. vs mutex →