What Does No Operation (NOP) Mean?

A no operation or “no-op” instruction in an assembly language is an instruction that does not implement any operation. IT pros or others might refer to this as a blank instruction or placeholder.

Techopedia Explains No Operation (NOP)

In some cases, no-op instructions are used for timing purposes. They can also help to deal with certain memory issues, or work in conjunction with a group of other instructions to facilitate some kind of end result. No-op instructions may be used for pipeline synchronization or to delay some type of CPU activity.