code
/kəʊd/US/koʊd/
code noun: a short textual designation, often with little relation to the item it represents. Also the alternative form of cod.
Noun
code (countable and uncountable, plural codes)
- A short textual designation, often with little relation to the item it represents.
- This flavour of soup has been assigned the code WRT-9.
- 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.
- the mild and impartial spirit which pervades the Code compiled under Canute1872, Francis Wharton, A Treatise on the Conflict of Laws
- 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.
- A set of rules for converting information into another form or representation.
- A codeword, code point, an encoded representation of a character, symbol, or other entity.
- The ASCII code of "A" is 65.
- A codeword, code point, an encoded representation of a character, symbol, or other entity.
- A message represented by rules intended to conceal its meaning.
- [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.2014 June 21, “Magician’s brain”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8892
- A cryptographic system using a codebook that converts words or phrases into codewords.
- 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.
- A program.
- A particular lect or language variety.
- An emergency requiring situation-trained members of the staff.
- A set of unwritten rules that bind a social group.
- girl code
- A sport or league of a specific type of football, such as rugby league or the NRL
Verb
code (third-person singular simple present codes, present participle coding, simple past and past participle coded)
- To write software programs.
- I learned to code on an early home computer in the 1980s.
- To add codes to (a data set).
- The resulting citation collection was databased and coded for meaning, etymon, and date range (earliest and latest occurrence found).2018, James Lambert, “A multitude of ‘lishes’: The nomenclature of hybridity”, in English World-Wide, page 5
- To categorise by assigning identifiers from a schedule, for example CPT coding for medical insurance purposes.
- To encode.
- We should code the messages we send out on Usenet.
- To encode a protein.
- To call a hospital emergency code.
- coding in the CT scanner
- Of a patient, to suffer a sudden medical emergency (a code blue) such as cardiac arrest.
Proper noun capitalized: Code
Code
- A surname.
Also used as
code is also the alternative form of cod.
code meaning in Hindi, Bengali, Malayalam and Punjabi
code in Hindi
- system of principles, rules or regulations
- संहिता sãhitā
- cryptographic system
- कोड koḍ
- instructions for a computer
- कोड koḍ
code in Bengali
- কোডিং করা, কোড করা
code in Malayalam
- കോഡ് ചെയ്യാൻ, കോഡ് ചെയ്യുവാനായി
code in Punjabi
- ਕੋਡ
More languagesFewer languages
- code in Gujarati
- કોડ કરો, કોડ કરવા
- code in Nepali
- कोड गर्न, कोड गर्नुहोस्
- code in Tagalog
- palahudyatan
- code in Arabic
- رُمُوز rumūz, شِفْرَة šifra, دُسْتُور dustūr, دَسْتُور dastūr
- code in Malay
- kanun
- code in Indonesian
- kitab undang-undang
- code in Persian
- کد kod
- code in Thai
- โค้ด kóot
- code in Vietnamese
- mã, luật, mật mã, mã hiệu
Examples of code in a sentence
- This code won’t build any more. Have you made any changes?
- You can make this program code more legible by using meaningful variable names.
- I have doubts about how to convert this code to JavaScript.
Forms of code
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | codes |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | codes |
| present participle | coding |
| past participle | coded |
| past | coded |
Origin of code
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. Verb etymology 1, verb sense 7 is an ellipsis of code blue (“medical emergency”).
Words formed from code
- codeball
- absolute code
- access code
- account code
- area code
- autocode
- Aztec code
- bar code
- barcode
- Baudot code
- BBCode
- Beckett-Gray code
- binary code
- biocode
- bio-code
- block code
- blue code
- blue code of silence
- boilerplate code
- brevity code
- bro code
- building code
- bytecode
- byte code
- chain code
- Chapman code
- Chappe code
- cheat code
- civil code
- clean code
- codeathon
- codebase
- code base
- code-behind
- code block
- code blue
- codebook
- codebreaker
- codebreaking
- code brown
- code cart
- code cave
- code completion
- code coverage
- code duello
- code enforcement
- code face
- code fence
- codefest
- code file
- code-first
- code folding
- code golf
- code grabber
- codegroup
- codehead
- codelength
- codeless
- code-lift
- codelike
Phrases with code
- Q code
- code up
- go code
- IC code
- QR code
- code mix
- code red
- code rot
- guy code
- RST code
- UPC code
- zip code
150 more phrasesFewer phrases
- code name
- code page
- code reds
- code unit
- code word
- dead code
- exit code
- fire code
- geek code
- glue code
- Gold Code
- Gray code
- hard code
- hash code
- Hays Code
- line code
- mail code
- post code
- scan code
- sort code
- time code
- vibe code
- code bases
- code blues
- code caves
- code faces
- code files
- code mixed
- code names
- code pages
- code point
- code smell
- code style
- code units
- code wheel
- code words
- color code
- dirty code
- dress code
- error code
- hanky code
- legal code
- moral code
- Morse code
- penal code
- promo code
- share code
- short code
- slave code
- up to code
- Wabun code
- Bloody Code
- code blocks
- code browns
- code mixing
- code monkey
- code points
- code review
- code smells
- code styles
- code switch
- code talker
- code wheels
- code yellow
- colour code
- coupon code
- design code
- double code
- flight code
- health code
- hidden code
- Konami Code
- legacy code
- Morton code
- Murray code
- native code
- object code
- postal code
- prefix code
- region code
- source code
- code lifting
- code monkeys
- code reviews
- code signing
- code talkers
- conduct code
- control code
- country code
- erasure code
- genetic code
- Gillham code
- Hamming code
- Highway Code
- lasagna code
- machine code
- managed code
- nuclear code
- Parsons code
- postage code
- product code
- ravioli code
- ternary code
- traffic code
- Wolfram code
- code grabbers
- code morphing
- code of honor
- code position
- code reviewed
- code switched
- computer code
- criminal code
- currency code
- dialling code
- Dimetian Code
- dressing code
- fountain code
- function code
- Grabovoi code
- kangaroo code
- language code
- Phillips Code
- plumbing code
- Sicilian code
- code of ethics
- code of honour
- code positions
- code red drill
- code reviewing
- code switching
- Hollerith code
- spaghetti code
- telegraph code
- unmanaged code
- code of conduct
- code of silence
- code switchings
- Edelcrantz code
- executable code
- production code
- code completions
- code of practice
- Green Cross Code
- ministerial code
- pseudo-city code
- unreachable code
- handkerchief code
- substitution code
- United States Code
Words that rhyme with code
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- bode
- choad
- corrode
- encode
- goad
- toad
- antipode
- decode
- episode
- erode
- forebode
- hoed
- incommode
- overrode
- recode
- rode
- strode
- throwed
- unicode
- woad
- 'splode
- bestowed
- cestode
- chode
- crowed
- discommode
- glode
- Gold Code
- grode
- growed
- hode
- I'll be blowed
- lowed
- mowed
- nuclear code
- ode
- owed
- shode
- side road
- Spanish Road
- stroad
- subnode
- tode
- toed
- towed
- Union Road
- uudecode
- uuencode
Questions about code
- What does code mean?
- Code means a short textual designation, often with little relation to the item it represents.
- What is code in Hindi?
- Code in Hindi is संहिता (sãhitā), कोड (koḍ). See Code meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is code?
- Code can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce code?
- Code is pronounced /kəʊd/ (UK).
- What is the plural of code?
- The plural of code is codes.
Words near code in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: code (page history and authors); Code (page history and authors); code (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); code (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); code (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); code (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); code (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-code.wav.
Cite this entry: “code.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/code. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.