code
Americannoun
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codes
plural
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a system for communication by telegraph, heliograph, etc., in which long and short sounds, light flashes, etc., are used to symbolize the content of a message.
Morse code.
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a system used for brevity or secrecy of communication, in which arbitrarily chosen words, letters, or symbols are assigned definite meanings.
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indirect wording that is euphemistic, deceptive, or opaque.
The firm says its testing methodology is “proprietary”—which some believe is code for “hidden from scrutiny.”
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any set of standards set forth and enforced by a local government agency for the protection of public safety, health, etc., as in the structural safety of buildings building code, health requirements for plumbing, ventilation, etc. sanitary code or health code, and the specifications for fire escapes or exits fire code.
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a systematically arranged collection or compendium of laws, rules, or regulations.
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any authoritative, general, systematic, and written statement of the legal rules and principles applicable in a given legal order to one or more broad areas of life.
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a word, letter, number, or other symbol used in a code system to mark, represent, or identify something.
The code on the label shows the date of manufacture.
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Computers.
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a set of symbols that can be interpreted by a computer or piece of software: Java code;
binary code;
Java code;
ASCII code.
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the symbolic arrangement of statements or instructions in a computer program, or the set of instructions in such a program.
That program took 3000 lines of code.
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any system or collection of rules and regulations.
a gentleman's code of behavior.
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Medicine/Medical. a directive or alert to a hospital team assigned to emergency resuscitation of patients.
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Genetics. genetic code.
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Linguistics.
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the system of rules shared by the participants in an act of communication, making possible the transmission and interpretation of messages.
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(in sociolinguistic theory) one of two distinct styles of language use that differ in degree of explicitness and are sometimes thought to be correlated with differences in social class.
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verb (used with object)
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codes,
present (3rd person singular)
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coded,
past participle, past
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coding
present participle
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to translate (a message) into a code; encode.
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to categorize or identify by assigning a code to.
All specimens were coded prior to the test.
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to arrange or enter (laws or statutes) in a code.
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Computers. to write code for (a computer program or application) (often followed byup ).
Hire a programmer to code up a website for you.
verb (used without object)
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codes,
present (3rd person singular)
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coded,
past participle, past
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coding
present participle
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Genetics. to specify the amino acid sequence of a protein by the sequence of nucleotides comprising the gene for that protein.
a gene that codes for the production of insulin.
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Computers. to write computer code.
noun
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a system of letters or symbols, and rules for their association by means of which information can be represented or communicated for reasons of secrecy, brevity, etc See also genetic code
binary code
Morse code
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a message in code
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a symbol used in a code
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a conventionalized set of principles, rules, or expectations
a code of behaviour
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a system of letters or digits used for identification or selection purposes
verb
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A system of signals used to represent letters or numbers in transmitting messages.
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The instructions in a computer program. Instructions written by a programmer in a programming language are often called source code. Instructions that have been converted into machine language that the computer understands are called machine code or executable code.
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See also programming language
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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codernoun
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subcodenoun
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precodeverb (used with object)
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recodeverb (used with object)
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codelessadjective
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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codesimple
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codessimple
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have codedperfect
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has codedperfect
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am codingprogressive
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are codingprogressive
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is codingprogressive
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have been codingperfect progressive
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has been codingperfect progressive
Past
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codedsimple
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had codedperfect
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was codingprogressive
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were codingprogressive
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had been codingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of code
First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English, from Anglo-French, Old French, from Latin cōdex “book”; see codex
Explanation
A code can be a set of principles. Our laws make up our legal code, and many people govern themselves through a personal "code of honor." Code can also mean a system for sending secret messages, or programming language for computers. In 1303, you could only use code to mean a set of laws, such as a code of conduct. It wasn’t until 1808 that you could use code to describe a system for sending secret messages. The verb form appeared in 1815, meaning to create laws or send secret messages, and gave birth to encode. In the computer programming context, encode was shortened back again to code, meaning to write instructions for a computer program. Soon the lines of text themselves began to be referred to as simply code.
Vocabulary lists containing code
Jim Burke's Academic Vocabulary List
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Computer Science and Technology - Introductory
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Tax Day Words
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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.
See Examples For:
As they craft, artisans chant aloud the design code handwritten on a strip of paper known as talim -- shorthand of ancient symbols for numbers and colours -- knotting the threads string by string.
From Barron's ● Aug. 27, 2026
To reconstruct what may have happened, the scientists used the Bern SPH code, which has been developed at the University of Bern over roughly two decades.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 26, 2026
The company has rolled out a group-chat feature for multiple colleagues and agents to code together.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026
“These are the public’s ballots, that’s why the election code is crafted the way it is, so that the public have a right to weigh in.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 24, 2026
Things that are difficult to pronounce, or obscure terms that Americans aren’t familiar with —those are bad code names.”
From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse
Pakistan has dealt with a number of major fires in recent years, often due to poor safety laws and building codes as well as lax enforcement.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
Fires in large buildings are frequent in Pakistan, often due to poor safety laws and building codes as well as lax enforcement.
From Barron's ● Aug. 26, 2026
Modern energy efficiency codes have lowered the margin of error for builders when it comes to moisture management.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026
Under Sheinbaum’s blueprint, broadcasters would be required to develop codes of ethics, name ombudsmen to represent viewers and listeners, and establish mechanisms to receive and evaluate complaints.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
Even worse, it focused on the angle she most wanted to avoid—the fact that she had cracked Chinese codes.
From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield
These, too, are world models, though they are painstakingly coded and highly specialized.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
If this had been coded correctly, a "timelier" ambulance response would "likely" have been sent.
From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026
It also prohibits the use of “sell by” dates on food packaging, but it does allow coded “sell by” dates that retain stock rotation information for retailers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2026
One user posted a video of a clunky but functional clone of the videogame “Grand Theft Auto,” showing it being coded autonomously by Fable.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 11, 2026
Soon after receiving Gold’s report, Yatzkov slipped away from his desk, walked up to the KGB office on the top floor, coded the report, and sent it to Moscow.
From "Bomb" by Steve Sheinkin
In his recent role at OpenAI, Zoph was charged with getting businesses to use the company’s Codex coding product.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
That strategy has paid off spectacularly -- coding is the rare AI skill that users are willing to pay handsomely for.
From Barron's ● Aug. 26, 2026
Engineers and investors are piling into world models, aka “large action models,” to do for robotics what ChatGPT did for writing and coding.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026
He noted that "vibe coding" – making an app or website using AI rather than by coding it manually – was "all the rage".
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
One of the best examples of this involved a new British coding device called a Pletts Cryptograph.
From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield
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.
