Word.ws English Dictionary

overcode

overcode noun: a code used to represent multiple (possibly unrelated) data items.

Noun

overcode (countable and uncountable, plural overcodes)

  1. (countable, research methods) A code used to represent multiple (possibly unrelated) data items.
    • Not only is it possible to construct an overcode collecting together groups of bill items but groups of overcodes can themselves be held collectively by a single higher overcode.1968, Pierce T. Piggott, Lindsay N. Johnston, Foras Forbartha, Technical documentation for the building industry, page 213
    • If an awarding institution cannot be identified as Scottish and the qualification is ONC/OND, HNC/HND, Clerical or Commercial, City and Guilds, Apprenticeship or a degree awarded by the C.N. A. A. boxes 1 and 2 are examined and if a Scottish school examination has been entered in either of the two...1971, The General Household Survey: An Inter-departmental Survey
  2. (countable) An established code (signifier) that also acts as a new code, either representing additional (related) meanings, or dividing into various nuances of the original meaning.
    • Instead of overlaying secondary images by alluding to an existing literary or oral tradition, structural overcodes overlay the secondary images by using technical vocabulary from a different frame of reference.2006, Jerry Camery-Hoggatt, Speaking of God: Reading and Preaching the Word of God, →ISBN, page 126
    • Opposed to codes that qualify, and overcodes that bring codes into a single resonance, axioms function by directly conjugating unqualified and decoded flows themselves.2012, Thomas Nail, Returning to Revolution: Deleuze, Guattari and Zapatismo, →ISBN, page 94
  3. Inventory that can no longer be sold (such as items that are past their sell-by date).
    • Other Pepperidge Farm distributors in the San Francisco Bay Area have no overcode returns to speak of and product which does go out of code can be shipped to Pepperidge Farm thrift stores for full credit or sold on the thrift market for a profit, as Mesirow and Morris claim to have done ( See p....1983, Bureau of National Affairs, Trade Regulation Series, page 604
    • Suppose, we are just interested in articles that can cause overcode.2001, L M M Tijskens, M L A T M Hertog, B M Nicolai, Food Process Modelling, →ISBN, page 93

Verb

overcode (third-person singular simple present overcodes, present participle overcoding, simple past and past participle overcoded)

  1. To use as an overcode for.
    • Social interaction would be the place to study how people learn these cultural codes or reasoning structures, which is related to the human ability to overcode meaning in ways that become conventional (Eco 1976).1984, Semiotica - Volumes 50-51, page 367
    • It is equally self-defeating to reduce people to objects that may be possessed, or to interpret (i.e., overcode, classify, categorize) people or books.1998, Vicki Mahaffey, States of Desire: Wilde, Yeats, Joyce, and the Irish Experiment, →ISBN
  2. To act as an overcode for.
    • In one example, she describes an advertisement depictin a nude female torso in profile. Wegenstein suggests that in this particular advertisement, the breasts overcode the body in a way that the face previously had reign.2007, M. Fenske, Tattoos in American Visual Culture, →ISBN, page 105
    • Disability suties in education, as an academic field, or the disability rights movement, might be considered molar discourses that overcode the affective everyday experience of disability education.2014, Anna Hickey-Moody, Vicki Crowley, Disability Matters: Pedagogy, Media and Affect, →ISBN, page 4
  3. To use a particular code or set of codes too much.
    • One of the greatest sources of unreliability is the constant error introduced by the observer because of distortion of his perceptions created by his own needs or values. An observer who sharply disapproves of certain leadership practices, for example, will have difficulty in preventing a bias. He...1951, Research Methods in Social Relations: Selected techniques, page 530
    • Always overcode. It is better to put both codes down if you have any question about which category is most appropriate.1995, United States. Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments, Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments: final report
  4. To code too many things or include too many codes in a coding system.
    • Coding should be done with great exactness: it is better to "overcode" than to "undercode."1972, Alice Schlegel, Male dominance and female autonomy
    • We had an increased percentage of disagreement at the beginning of her ratings since she was overcoding and making too many ratings, due to a misunderstanding about the coding of responses regarding time.1978, Kay Hartshorn, Perceived Effects of Graduate School on Couples' Relationships

Examples of overcode in a sentence

  • In so doing, she tries to subdivide the domestic home and overcode their relationship with rigid divisions.2015, Bridget Roussell Cowlishaw, Masculinity in Breaking Bad: Critical Perspectives, →ISBN, page 177:
  • Humans will never completely overcode non-human multiplicities.2017, Jean Hillier, Stretching Beyond the Horizon, →ISBN:
  • He will tend to overcode those categories which best describe his feelings.1951, Research Methods in Social Relations: Selected techniques, page 530:
  • But the Office of the Inspector General study disagreed, saying that doctors overcode for these procedures, and the 29% of errors result in a $20 billion overpayment by this federal program.2001, Medical Billing Secrets: Building Your Successful Home-Based Business, →ISBN:

Forms of overcode

Noun
pluralovercodes
Verb
third-person singular presentovercodes
present participleovercoding
past participleovercoded
pastovercoded

Origin of overcode

From over- + code.

Questions about overcode

What does overcode mean?
Overcode means a code used to represent multiple (possibly unrelated) data items.
How do you use overcode in a sentence?
In so doing, she tries to subdivide the domestic home and overcode their relationship with rigid divisions.
What part of speech is overcode?
Overcode can be a noun or a verb.
What is the plural of overcode?
The plural of overcode is overcodes.

Words near overcode in the dictionary

  1. overcoats
  2. overcoddle
  3. overcoddled
  4. overcoddles
  5. overcoddling
  6. overcode
  7. overcoded
  8. overcodes
  9. overcoding
  10. overcodings
  11. overcoherence

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: overcode (page history and authors). 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.

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Cite this entry: “overcode.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/overcode. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.