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.

---

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

---

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

---

code Cultural  

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

---

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

Due for release on November 19, the highly anticipated "Grand Theft Auto VI" has also drawn criticism because its physical game box contains only a download code.

From Barron's ● Aug. 28, 2026

To reconstruct what may have happened, the scientists used the Bern SPH code, which has been developed at the University of Bern over roughly two decades.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 26, 2026

As bots are unleashed throughout workplaces to analyze information, make recommendations, pull together slide decks or write code, the thinking goes, those AI agents should know the very latest information available.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026

For now, it can only do simple repetitive movements, such as scan a QR code.

From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026

Angela had used a Post-it note to write down the code for standby passengers who’d received a seat assignment at the last minute, and she’d stuck it to her computer screen.

From "Found" by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Often we are swimming in information: recall alerts, traceback reports, lot codes, congressional inquiries, corporate ownership records, corrected test results, viral posts and, increasingly, apps designed to help us interpret the whole mess.

From Salon ● Aug. 27, 2026

It called for bar codes and other mandatory design features on ballot envelopes.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026

NSW State Emergency Services commissioner Mike Wassing said that codes are often assigned during major searches.

From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026

The complaint, filed with the California Department of Education, asks the state agency to investigate whether education codes have been violated.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026

But what ciphers and codes had been used?

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

Thus, along with their instruments they packed sheaves of what appeared to be sheet music but was in fact coded data.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026

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

For another, Formula 1 and soccer, sports frequently coded as elite and coastal, are experiencing booms of popularity across the country.

From Salon ● Aug. 16, 2026

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

From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026

Each agent identified himself, in his daily reports, only by a coded number.

From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann

That strategy has paid off spectacularly -- coding is the rare AI skill that users are willing to pay handsomely for.

From Barron's ● Aug. 26, 2026

He noted that "vibe coding" – making an app or website using AI rather than by coding it manually – was "all the rage".

From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026

He would later go on to run Prod, a Cambridge, Mass.-based, student-run nonprofit startup accelerator that produced the coding agent Cursor and the AI hiring platform Mercor, before co-founding Etched.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026

“You know I stopped coding for a living in 1985,” he said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026

“All three companies use sixteen-character coding systems, and in all three of them the first four characters are identical.”

From "City Spies" by James Ponti

Related Words

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