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

His wife was waiting to undergo a caesarean section at the ward, which serves patients on modest incomes, but was told that she had to take her baby and leave after the procedure.

From Barron's ● Aug. 27, 2026

"It is trained on more operations than most surgeons see or do in a lifetime and can act like an expert second pair of eyes," said Prof Hani Marcus, who helped carry out the procedure.

From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026

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

Being in high school, she knew something of parliamentary procedure, and thought it might be a good idea to have the chairman represent the common people.

From "Cheaper by the Dozen" by Frank B. Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey

The MoJ added that it would also consider how procedures could be made "clearer and more supportive for victims and their families".

From BBC ● Aug. 27, 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

Supreme Court procedures and rulings can be technical and hard to understand, but this case is a doozy.

From Slate ● Aug. 24, 2026

Confidence in experimental knowledge thus requires the natural/artificial distinction to be undermined and replaced by the conviction that by performing procedures that correspond to natural processes I can have true knowledge of those processes.

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