coding

American  

[koh-ding] / ˈkoʊ dɪŋ /

noun

1. Computers. the act or process of writing code, or the instructions for a program or piece of software.

   There’s a bit of coding left to do, and then we’ll be ready to beta-test.

   He likes to do the software design, but leaves the actual coding to others.

2. the act or process of expressing a message in words, images, sounds, or any other set of symbols or signs; encoding.

   The secret coding of ship messages hindered rescue efforts during the war.

   In advertising, the coding of your message can make or break your marketing strategy.

3. the act or process of categorizing or identifying a set of things by assigning a code to them.

   Using color coding along with the bin labels will increase the sorting productivity and accuracy of mail clerks.

4. Statistics. the act of transforming a random variable into one that is more convenient for certain types of analysis or for the removal of invalid data.

---

Etymology

Origin of coding

First recorded in 1865–70 originally used for telegraphy; code + -ing ¹

Example Sentences

“But, especially in places like math and coding, you can pass off the output of LLMs to, or direct the LLMs with, other technologies that had lost favor but actually are very useful.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 17, 2026

But while Cursor is an AI-assisted coding tool to enhance the work of individual developers, Factory is essentially creating an AI agent developer for enterprises.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 16, 2026

In the crowded arena of AI coding, another startup has raised its flag.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 16, 2026

OpenAI also cited demand for products like ChatGPT and coding tool, Codex, to justify the expansion, saying it wanted to make the U.K. capital its largest research hub outside the U.S.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 16, 2026

We must imagine the morphogenesis of deep structures, built into our minds, for coding out, like proteins, the parts of speech.

From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas