codes

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.
   • the mild and impartial spirit which pervades the Code compiled under Canute1872, Francis Wharton, A Treatise on the Conflict of Laws
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.
4. A set of rules for converting information into another form or representation.
   1. (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.
   • [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

See all 21 meanings of code