procedure

American  

[pruh-see-jer] / prəˈsi dʒər /

noun

• procedures
  plural

1. an act or a manner of proceeding in any action or process; conduct.

   Synonyms:

   management

2. a particular course or mode of action.

   Synonyms:

   plan, method, operation

3. any given mode of conducting legal, parliamentary, or other business, especially litigation and judicial proceedings.

4. Computers.

   1. the sequence of actions or instructions to be followed in solving a problem or accomplishing a task.

   2. Also called subprogram.  a group of statements that may be used at one or more points in a computer program.

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procedure British  

/ prəˈsiːdʒə /

noun

1. a way of acting or progressing in a course of action, esp an established method

2. the established mode or form of conducting the business of a legislature, the enforcement of a legal right, etc

3. computing another name for subroutine

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Usage

What does procedure mean? A procedure is a particular way of doing something, especially one that is usually repeated in the same way each time. This is how the word is used in the phrases standard procedure and follow procedure, as in It’s important to follow procedure in the event of an emergency. The word procedure can also refer to a particular course of action, as in The instructions list all the steps of the procedure. This is especially used in professional and technical contexts. In a legal context, the word refers to the specific way that proceedings need to be carried out according to the rules. In a medical context, procedure is used as a synonym for operation, as in I’m having a minor procedure done tomorrow. In computers and programming, a procedure is a series or instructions followed in order to complete some task, often as part of a program. Example: This is not proper procedure! Who’s in charge here?

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• procedural
  adjective
• procedurally
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• procedures
  plural

Etymology

Origin of procedure

From the French word procédure, dating back to 1605–15. See proceed, -ure

Explanation

A procedure is a tried and true process or method used to accomplish a particular task. Using sharp metal picks, dentists scrape the plaque from their patients’ teeth. While effective, it’s a procedure most people despise. The word procedure is often used in the fields of medicine and law, sometimes in combination with other words, as in "surgical procedure" or "legal procedure." A "Parliamentary procedure" is the set of rules that you follow at a meeting of a club or some other organization (not necessarily a House of Parliament). Procedure is also related to the word procedural, which is sometimes used a term for a genre of television drama in which the plot revolves around a technical procedure, like the solving of a police case.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

procedure procedures

That procedure, they argued, would result in “Christa involuntarily reliving the worst moments of her life, much like traumatized soldiers when they return from a war zone.”

From Slate ● Aug. 25, 2026

“All the while, the hallmark of this case stared back at us: a flawed eyewitness identification procedure that never should have led to a conviction.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2026

Malcolm Offord said he had a procedure last week to remove his prostate and was now "clear" and "raring to go".

From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026

But the company refused, so a procedure is underway to determine whether they will be forced to pull the drug.

From Barron's ● Aug. 19, 2026

But there was also a love of procedure and resistance to change.

From "Impossible Creatures" by Katherine Rundell

What makes this tightrope even harder to navigate is that these legal developments don’t happen at the predictable cadence Americans might want from their election procedures.

From Slate ● Aug. 25, 2026

While return procedures are accelerated, the government will continue to provide humanitarian assistance to those who seek asylum or are unaccompanied minors and therefore cannot be returned, he added.

From Barron's ● Aug. 25, 2026

Families often end up back in the position where they need an elder-law attorney who knows their way around Medicaid recovery procedures, because they can be the squeakiest wheels.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 25, 2026

Bret Michaels has canceled his remaining 2026 tour dates to rest and recover from recent medical procedures.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 24, 2026

In other words, the social procedures we have for establishing certain types of fact cannot be justified, but they are successful, they pay, and this is why we employ them.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton

Related Words

• action
• agenda
• conduct
• form
• measure
• method
• move
• operation
• plan
• policy
• practice
• proceeding
• program
• scheme
• step
• strategy
• transaction