Common Intermediate Language

Common Intermediate Language (CIL), formerly called Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL) or Intermediate Language (IL), is the intermediate language binary instruction set defined within the Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) specification.

CIL instructions are executed by a CLI-compatible runtime environment such as the Common Language Runtime.

Languages which target the CLI compile to CIL.

CIL is object-oriented, stack-based bytecode.

Runtimes typically just-in-time compile CIL instructions into native code.

CIL was originally known as Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL) during the beta releases of the .NET languages.

Due to standardization of C# and the CLI, the bytecode is now officially known as CIL.

Windows Defender virus definitions continue to refer to binaries compiled with it as MSIL.