- present participle of code.
coding
Americannoun
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codings
plural
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of coding
First recorded in 1865–70 originally used for telegraphy; code + -ing 1
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:
Anthropic, the OpenAI rival that bet everything on computer coding, is expected to go public within weeks in a listing that could eclipse SpaceX's record Wall Street debut in June.
From Barron's ● 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
He would later go on to run Prod, a Cambridge, Mass.-based, student-run nonprofit startup accelerator that produced the coding agent Cursor and the AI hiring platform Mercor, before co-founding Etched.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026
“But I darn well believe it’s important that the coding is done and done well.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026
She lived and breathed coding; she couldn’t imagine giving it up for anything.
From "When Dimple Met Rishi" by Sandhya Menon
Racial codings of social problems influence public attitudes through two basic processes.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 26, 2021
The Cricketer magazine’s 2018 fixtures wallchart has 21 different colour codings for different kinds of events, putting it way ahead of the London Underground map.
From The Guardian ● May 11, 2018
As mentioned already, one huge problem with Dave’s analyses is that many of his character codings are derived from his application of the DGS technique.
From Scientific American ● Jul. 4, 2012
It’s because his observations, and hence his character codings and the trees that result from them, are regarded as wholly unreliable.
From Scientific American ● Jul. 4, 2012
I’m sure that DGS is giving wholly erroneous results; all of the codings thus derived from this method are inaccurate reflections of real anatomy.
From Scientific American ● Jul. 4, 2012
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.
