A computer architecture in which, within a given 16- OR 32-bit wORd, bytes at lower addresses have lower significance (the wORd is stORed "little-end-first"). The PDP-11 and VAX families of computers and IntelmicroprocessORs and a lot of communications and netwORking hardware are little-endian. The term is sometimes used to describe the ORdering of units other than bytes most often, bits within a byte. Compare big-endian, middle-endian. See NUXI problem. [Jargon File] (1995-08-16)