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A '''variable-width encoding''' is a type of [[character encoding]] scheme in which codes of differing lengths are used to encode a [[character set]] (a repertoire of symbols) for representation, usually in a [[computer]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Crispin|first=M.|date=April 2005|title=UTF-9 and UTF-18 Efficient Transformation Formats of Unicode|doi=10.17487/rfc4042|doi-access=free}}</ref>{{efn|The concept long precedes the advent of the electronic computer, however, as seen with [[Morse code]].}} Most common variable-width encodings are '''multibyte encodings''', which use varying numbers of [[byte]]s ([[octet (computing)|octets]]) to encode different characters.
(Some authors, notably in [[Microsoft]] documentation, use the term ''multibyte character set,'' which is a [[misnomer]], because representation size is an attribute of the encoding, not of the character set.)
Early variable width encodings using less than a byte per character were sometimes used to pack English text into fewer bytes in [[adventure game]]s for early [[microcomputers]]. However [[disk storage|disks]] (which unlike tapes allowed random access allowing text to be loaded on demand), increases in computer memory and general purpose [[compression algorithm]]s have rendered such tricks largely obsolete.
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