The following definitions apply for this part of ISO/IEC 7816:

• Answer-to-Reset file: Elementary file which indicates operation characteristics of the card.
• command-response pair: Set of two messages a command followed by a response.
• data unit: The smallest set of bits which can be unambiguously referenced.
• data object: Information seen at the interface which consists of a tag, a length and a value (i.e. a data element). In this part of ISO/IEC 7816, data objects are referred to as BER-TLV, COMPACT-TLV and SIMPLE-TLV data objects.
• dedicated file: File containing file control information and optionally memory available for allocation. It may be the parent of EFs and/or DFs.
• DF name: String of bytes which uniquely identifies a dedicated file in the card.
• directory file: Elementary file defined in part 5 of ISO/IEC 7816.
• elementary file: Set of data units or records which share the same file identifier. It cannot be the parent of another file.
• file control parameters: Logical, structural and security attributes of a file.
• file identifier: A 2-byte binary value used to address a file.
• file management data: Any information about a file except the file control parameters (e.g. expiration, date, application, label).
• internal elementary file: Elementary file for storing data interpreted by the card.
• master file: The mandatory unique dedicated file representing the root of the file structure.
• message: String of bytes transmitted by the interface device to the card or vice-versa, excluding transmission-oriented characters as defined in part 3 of ISO/IEC 7816.
• parent file: The dedicated file immediately preceding a given file within the hierachy.
• password: Data which may be required by the application to be presented to the card by its user.
• path: Concatenation of file identifier without delimitation. If the path starts with the identifier of the master file, it is an absolute path.
• provider: Authority who has or who obtained the right to create a dedicated file in the card.
• record: String of bytes which can be handled as a whole by the cards and referenced by a record number or by record identifier.
• record identifier: Value associated with a record that can be used to reference that record. Several records may have the same identifier within an elementary file.
• record number: Sequential number assigned to each record which uniquely identifies the record within its elementary file.
• working elementary file: Elementary file for storing data not interpreted by the card.