: 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
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Your goal is to find the n-rule Turing machine that runs the longest before eventually halting.
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Ben Brubaker, Wired News, 14 Sep. 2025
To this end, software engineer Alex Churchill and two other Magic players created a game situation in which the cards act as a universal computer—as a Turing machine.
—Manon Bischoff, Scientific American, 22 Apr. 2025
It’s known that there’s no algorithm that can answer this for every Turing machine.
—Joseph Howlett, WIRED, 9 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
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Ben Brubaker, Wired News, 14 Sep. 2025
To this end, software engineer Alex Churchill and two other Magic players created a game situation in which the cards act as a universal computer—as a Turing machine.
—Manon Bischoff, Scientific American, 22 Apr. 2025
It’s known that there’s no algorithm that can answer this for every Turing machine.
—Joseph Howlett, WIRED, 9 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
Cite this Entry
“Turing machine.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Turing%20machine. Accessed 30 Oct. 2025.
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