procedural

American  

[pruh-see-jer-uhl] / prəˈsi dʒər əl /

adjective

1. of or relating to a procedure or procedures, especially of a court of law, legislative body, or law enforcement agency.

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noun

• procedurals
  plural

1. police procedural.

Usage

What does procedural mean? Procedural is used to describe things that involve a specific procedure—a particular way of doing something, especially one that is usually repeated in the same way each time. The word procedural is especially used in the context of formal, official procedures, such as those used in government and law. A procedural vote is typically one that is simply part of the process to move forward to a full and final vote on a matter. A procedural agreement is a kind of contract that governs how a collective bargaining process will be carried out. Procedural can also be used as a noun to refer to a procedural drama—work of fiction, especially a TV show, that realistically portrays a kind of professional work. A common type of procedural is a police procedural. The popular show Law & Order is a procedural. Example: This meeting is solely to deal with procedural matters—the debate on the actual issues will come later.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nonprocedural
  adjective
• procedurally
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• procedurals
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of procedural

First recorded in 1885–90; procedure + -al ¹

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Explanation

If you have to follow so many rules at work that it seems like nothing ever gets done, you could say that the procedural requirements of your job are getting you down. The adjective procedural describes something related to a required or standard course of action. Legal types are probably already familiar with the word procedural, which is often used to describe matters related to the law. The Senate, for example, may cite procedural roadblocks as the reason why nothing has been accomplish in a session. So that would give the Senate something in common with your workplace: having too many rules to follow — "procedural overload" — makes things take a long time.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

procedural procedurals

But it is a clever if knottily plotted police procedural and there are enough questions of substance—i.e. provocations of the sociopolitical variety—to keep one watching.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 29, 2026

Bahgat told AFP news agency that security personnel then filed in before the judge announced that the court was denying several procedural requests made by the defence and appointing its own lawyer for Attalah.

From BBC ● Oct. 27, 2026

But “The Only Living Pickpocket in New York” is less a procedural thriller than a wistful mood piece about the passage of time, what’s lost, what’s left behind.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 22, 2026

Specialized review can provide expertise and consistency, but those benefits cannot justify making access to justice contingent on years of procedural hurdles.

From Slate ● Oct. 19, 2026

It was a two-hour-and-twenty-three-minute court hearing, on its face just one more procedural step in more than two years of dug-in fighting.

From "A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age" by Matt Richtel

Where Americans think of graphically violent procedurals as comfort watches, the British prefer their TV homicides to be much tidier: Serious violence occurs offscreen.

From Salon ● Jun. 16, 2026

It’s part of a broader pattern for network procedurals with deep libraries, such as “Grey’s Anatomy,” which is consistently popular on Netflix.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 7, 2026

A strain of comedy is common to team-based procedurals, and it’s certainly part of what’s kept “NCIS” going strong all these years.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 4, 2025

The cinematography tries too hard to capture melodramatic modern police procedurals with their choking clouds of haze.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2025

The predictability and formulaic nature of such procedurals, the very qualities that turn off some viewers and critics, are what its fans value.

From New York Times ● May 28, 2024

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Related Words

• administrative
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• formal
• methodological
• operational
• organizational
• technical

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