code

American  

[kohd] / koʊd /

noun

• codes
  plural

1. a system for communication by telegraph, heliograph, etc., in which long and short sounds, light flashes, etc., are used to symbolize the content of a message.

   Morse code.

2. a system used for brevity or secrecy of communication, in which arbitrarily chosen words, letters, or symbols are assigned definite meanings.

3. indirect wording that is euphemistic, deceptive, or opaque.

   The firm says its testing methodology is “proprietary”—which some believe is code for “hidden from scrutiny.”

4. any set of standards set forth and enforced by a local government agency for the protection of public safety, health, etc., as in the structural safety of buildings building code, health requirements for plumbing, ventilation, etc. sanitary code or health code, and the specifications for fire escapes or exits fire code.

5. a systematically arranged collection or compendium of laws, rules, or regulations.

6. any authoritative, general, systematic, and written statement of the legal rules and principles applicable in a given legal order to one or more broad areas of life.

7. a word, letter, number, or other symbol used in a code system to mark, represent, or identify something.

   The code on the label shows the date of manufacture.

8. Computers.

   1. a set of symbols that can be interpreted by a computer or piece of software: Java code;

      binary code;

      Java code;

      ASCII code.

   2. the symbolic arrangement of statements or instructions in a computer program, or the set of instructions in such a program.

      That program took 3000 lines of code.

9. any system or collection of rules and regulations.

   a gentleman's code of behavior.

10. Medicine/Medical. a directive or alert to a hospital team assigned to emergency resuscitation of patients.

11. Genetics. genetic code.

12. Linguistics.

    1. the system of rules shared by the participants in an act of communication, making possible the transmission and interpretation of messages.

    2. (in sociolinguistic theory) one of two distinct styles of language use that differ in degree of explicitness and are sometimes thought to be correlated with differences in social class.

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verb (used with object)

• codes,
  present (3rd person singular)
• coded,
  past participle,  past
• coding
  present participle

1. to translate (a message) into a code; encode.

2. to categorize or identify by assigning a code to.

   All specimens were coded prior to the test.

3. to arrange or enter (laws or statutes) in a code.

4. Computers. to write code for (a computer program or application) (often followed byup ).

   Hire a programmer to code up a website for you.

verb (used without object)

• codes,
  present (3rd person singular)
• coded,
  past participle,  past
• coding
  present participle

1. Genetics. to specify the amino acid sequence of a protein by the sequence of nucleotides comprising the gene for that protein.

   a gene that codes for the production of insulin.

2. Computers. to write computer code.

code British  

/ kəʊd /

noun

1. a system of letters or symbols, and rules for their association by means of which information can be represented or communicated for reasons of secrecy, brevity, etc See also genetic code

   binary code

   Morse code

2. a message in code

3. a symbol used in a code

4. a conventionalized set of principles, rules, or expectations

   a code of behaviour

5. a system of letters or digits used for identification or selection purposes

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verb

1. to translate, transmit, or arrange into a code

code Scientific  

/ kōd /

1. A system of signals used to represent letters or numbers in transmitting messages.

2. The instructions in a computer program. Instructions written by a programmer in a programming language are often called source code. Instructions that have been converted into machine language that the computer understands are called machine code or executable code.

3. See also programming language

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code Cultural  

1. A series of instructions designed to be fed into a computer.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• coder
  noun
• subcode
  noun
• precode
  verb (used with object)
• recode
  verb (used with object)
• codeless
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• codes
  plural

Participles

• coding
  present
• coded
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• code
  simple
• codes
  simple
• have coded
  perfect
• has coded
  perfect
• am coding
  progressive
• are coding
  progressive
• is coding
  progressive
• have been coding
  perfect progressive
• has been coding
  perfect progressive

Past

• coded
  simple
• had coded
  perfect
• was coding
  progressive
• were coding
  progressive
• had been coding
  perfect progressive

Future

• will code
  simple
• will have coded
  perfect
• will be coding
  progressive
• will have been coding
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of code

First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English, from Anglo-French, Old French, from Latin cōdex “book”; see codex

Explanation

A code can be a set of principles. Our laws make up our legal code, and many people govern themselves through a personal "code of honor." Code can also mean a system for sending secret messages, or programming language for computers. In 1303, you could only use code to mean a set of laws, such as a code of conduct. It wasn’t until 1808 that you could use code to describe a system for sending secret messages. The verb form appeared in 1815, meaning to create laws or send secret messages, and gave birth to encode. In the computer programming context, encode was shortened back again to code, meaning to write instructions for a computer program. Soon the lines of text themselves began to be referred to as simply code.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

code codes coded coding

When we decided to buy, we knew it was going to have to be in a more affordable zip code.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 20, 2026

Roebuck scooted onto his hip and entered the code.

From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026

In Devon and Cornwall officers have also sprayed illegal riders and their bikes with SmartWater - a forensic marking product that contains a unique chemical code which becomes visible using ultraviolet light.

From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026

A QR code will be placed by the building to direct visitors to an online multimedia page about La Opinión’s history, according to the city officials.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2026

“Goulash. Still wrestling with the code your brother told you about?” whispers Colin.

From "The Bletchley Riddle" by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin

In California, that would mean election officials would have to enroll 23 million voters with new bar codes before state ballots could be mailed.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 2026

Working with bosonic quantum codes is not simple.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 11, 2026

The restaurant, already in need of updating for health ordinances and building codes, shuttered for a three-year renovation.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026

She fought tirelessly to get the sport sanctioned in Ireland and included in the Olympics, before going on to conquer both the amateur and professional codes.

From BBC ● Sep. 5, 2026

The FBI had been quick to claim full credit in the newspapers for capturing South America’s spies, as well as for breaking the Doll Woman’s codes.

From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield

Four American musicians visiting the Soviet Union in 1985 packed what appeared to be sheet music but was in fact coded data.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026

If this had been coded correctly, a "timelier" ambulance response would "likely" have been sent.

From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026

It also prohibits the use of “sell by” dates on food packaging, but it does allow coded “sell by” dates that retain stock rotation information for retailers.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2026

Then during his senior year, Freese coded an expected goals model for an independent research project.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 25, 2026

I’d coded the entire thing myself, shortly after moving to Columbus.

From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline

AI has made this micro entrepreneurship possible, especially for people without coding experience.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 20, 2026

Charles Lamanna, executive vice president of Copilot, agents, and platform, tells Rosenbush that the days of coding as we once knew it are over—and with it, the traditional, vertically aligned structure of his 20,000-person unit.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026

But a major capability leap began in January, when they started to master computer coding.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 17, 2026

Businesses could continue adapting them to customer service, coding, document creation and administrative work.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 15, 2026

Transcribing the oral number system into written form was a simple task: people just needed to figure out a coding method whereby scribes could set the numbers down in a more permanent form.

From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife

Related Words

• constitution
• convention
• custom
• discipline
• laws
• regulation
• rules
• system