code

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See also: Code and codé

English

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From Middle English code (“system of law”), from Old French code (“system of law”), from Latin cōdex, later form of caudex (“the stock or stem of a tree, a board or tablet of wood smeared over with wax, on which the ancients originally wrote; hence, a book, a writing.”). Doublet of codex.

Noun

code (countable and uncountable, plural codes)

  1. A short textual designation, often with little relation to the item it represents.
    This flavour of soup has been assigned the code WRT-9.
  2. A body of law, sanctioned by legislation, in which the rules of law to be specifically applied by the courts are set forth in systematic form; a compilation of laws by public authority; a digest.
    • 1872, Francis Wharton, A Treatise on the Conflict of Laws:
      the mild and impartial spirit which pervades the Code compiled under Canute
  3. Any system of principles, rules or regulations relating to one subject.
    The medical code is a system of rules for the regulation of the professional conduct of physicians.
    The naval code is a system of rules for making communications at sea by means of signals.
  4. A set of rules for converting information into another form or representation.
    1. By synecdoche: a codeword, code point, an encoded representation of a character, symbol, or other entity.
      The ASCII code of "A" is 65.
  5. A message represented by rules intended to conceal its meaning.
    • 2014 June 21, “Magician’s brain”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8892:
      [Isaac Newton] was obsessed with alchemy. He spent hours copying alchemical recipes and trying to replicate them in his laboratory. He believed that the Bible contained numerological codes.
  6. (cryptography) A cryptographic system using a codebook that converts words or phrases into codewords.
  8. (programming, uncountable) Instructions for a computer, written in a programming language; the input of a translator, an interpreter or a browser, namely: source code, machine code, bytecode.
    Object-oriented C++ code is easier to understand for a human than C code.
    I wrote some code to reformat text documents.
    This HTML code may be placed on your web page.
  9. (scientific programming) A program.
  10. (linguistics) A particular lect or language variety.
  11. (medicine) An emergency requiring situation-trained members of the staff.
  12. (informal) A set of unwritten rules that bind a social group.
    girl code
Hyponyms
Derived terms
Derived terms of code without hyponyms
More derived terms (unsorted, some are hyponyms and some not
Related terms
Descendants
  • → Hindi: कूट (kūṭ)
    • → Sanskrit: कूट (kūṭa)
  • → Japanese: コード (kōdo)
Translations
body of law
source code — see source code
machine code — see machine code
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
See also

Verb

code (third-person singular simple present codes, present participle coding, simple past and past participle coded)

  1. (computing) To write software programs.
    I learned to code on an early home computer in the 1980s.
  2. (transitive) To add codes to (a data set).
    • 2018, James Lambert, “A multitude of ‘lishes’: The nomenclature of hybridity”, in English World-Wide‎, page 5:
      The resulting citation collection was databased and coded for meaning, etymon, and date range (earliest and latest occurrence found).
  3. To categorise by assigning identifiers from a schedule, for example CPT coding for medical insurance purposes.
  4. (cryptography) To encode.
    We should code the messages we send out on Usenet.
  5. (genetics, intransitive) To encode a protein.
  6. (medicine) To call a hospital emergency code.
    coding in the CT scanner
  7. (intransitive, medicine) To go into a state where a hospital emergency code is required to save one's life.
    He coded out of nowhere
Derived terms
Translations

References

Etymology 2

From code blue, a medical emergency.

Verb

code (third-person singular simple present codes, present participle coding, simple past and past participle coded)

  1. (medicine) Of a patient, to suffer a sudden medical emergency (a code blue) such as cardiac arrest.
Translations

Further reading

Anagrams

Aromanian

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin coda, from Latin cauda. Compare Daco-Romanian coadă.

Noun

code f (plural codz, definite articulation coda)

  1. tail

Derived terms

Chinese

Etymology

From English code.

Pronunciation

Noun

code

  1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) code (symbol)
  2. (Hong Kong Cantonese, computing) code
    揼code [Cantonese]  ―  dap6 kuk1   ―  to write (computer) code

See also

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowing from French code, in the senses relating to laws and rules. Senses related to cryptography and coding have been borrowed from English code. Both derive from Old French code, from Latin cōdex.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈkoː.də/
  • Audio(file)
  • Hyphenation: co‧de

Noun

code m (plural codes, diminutive codetje n)

  1. book or body of laws, code of laws, lawbook
    Synonym: wetboek
  2. system of rules and principles, e.g. of conduct
  3. code (set of symbols)
  4. code (text written in a programming language)

Derived terms

Related terms

Descendants

  • → Indonesian: kode

French

Pronunciation

Noun

code m (plural codes)

  1. code

Derived terms

Descendants

Further reading

Anagrams

Friulian

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin cōda, variant of Latin cauda.

Pronunciation

This entry needs pronunciation information. If you are familiar with the IPA then please add some!

Noun

code f (plural codis)

  1. tail
  2. queue, line

Italian

Noun

code f

  1. plural of coda

Anagrams

Middle English

FWOTD – 19 January 2021

Etymology 1

From Old English cudu, cwidu, cweodu, from Proto-West Germanic *kwidu.

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈkud(ə)/, /ˈkoːd(ə)/, /ˈkweːd(ə)/, /ˈkwid(ə)/

Noun

code (uncountable)

  2. Any kind of plant gum; a gummy or resinous substance.
  3. Cud; regurgitated food chewed upon by livestock.
    • a. 1382, John Wycliffe, “Osee 7:14”, in Wycliffe's Bible:
      And thei crieden not to me in her herte, but ȝelliden in her beddis. Thei chewiden code on wheete, and wyn, and thei ȝeden awei fro me.
      And they didn't cry to me from their hearts; instead they whined in their beds. They chewed wheat and wine like cud, then they ran away from me.
  4. (rare) A mass or lump; a large pile of something.
Descendants
References

Etymology 2

From Old French code, from Latin cōdex, caudex.

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈkɔːd(ə)/
  • (Northern) IPA(key): /ˈkøːd(ə)/

Noun

code (rare)

  2. A coherent and unified body of laws.
  3. The core of someone's last testament.
Descendants
References

Etymology 3

From Old English codd and Old Norse koddi.

Noun

code

  1. Alternative form of codde (“seedpod”)

Old French

Noun

code oblique singular, m (oblique plural codes, nominative singular codes, nominative plural code)

  1. Alternative form of coute

Tarantino

Noun

code

  1. tail
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