verb
Other Word Forms
- codifiability noun
- codifier noun
- recodify verb (used with object)
Etymology
Origin of codify
Explanation
To codify is to arrange information in a logical order that others can follow. Legislators may try to codify, or gather and organize, all laws related to a particular issue. When you look at the word codify you can probably guess that it's related to the word code. Warriors live by a code. Building inspectors check that a building and its systems are up to code. Hockey players use "the code" to determine when — and why — to fight on the ice. All of these codes are clear to the people who use them because someone in the past made an effort to codify the various rules into an organized system.
Vocabulary lists containing codify
Vocabulary from the Twelfth Republican Debate, March 10, 2016
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Content Summary 4.7: Early Modern Western Society and Culture
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President Obama's Remarks on Spying Scandal
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
This weekend’s Super Bowl will codify the shift.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 7, 2026
In a social media post on Wednesday, Trump said he would ask Congress to "codify" the plan and would discuss it further at the Davos World Economic Forum later this month.
From BBC • Jan. 7, 2026
Lawmakers could also consider whether to codify the 2019 HRA rule or incorporate HRA-related tax incentives in a possible second budget reconciliation bill.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 12, 2025
As director and narrator Dawn Logsdon describes in her documentary “Free for All: The Public Library,” these horrors inspired America's librarians to codify their unifying principles into a document.
From Salon • Mar. 30, 2025
He had tried to codify the evil uses of might by individuals, so that he might set bounds to them by the impersonal justice of the state.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
