22/05/2026
The Names Broken Down:
1. IL = Intermediate Language
Meaning: "Intermediate" means "in the middle." It is the halfway point between human-readable C # code and machine-readable binary.
2. CIL = Common Intermediate Language
Meaning: This is the official industry-standard name. It is called "Common" because different programming languages (like C #, F #, or VB.NET) all compile down into this exact same language.
3. MSIL = Microsoft Intermediate Language
Meaning: This was the original name given by Microsoft when they invented it. You will still see it used constantly in older tutorials and documentation.