Common Language Runtime

In computing, Common Language Runtime (CLR) is an runtime environment enabling the exact same code called intermediate code[?] to run on various computers such as Windows PCs, Unix machines and Machintoshes[?].

It is the implementation of the Microsoft .NET Common Language Infrastructure. It is the generic multi-language execution engine (a virtual machine) on which code runs, around twenty languages are currently (early 2002) supported. Compilers are defined by the Common Language Specification (CLS), a subset of the CLR which defines interoperability between languages.