protocol
Syllables: pro·to·col/ˈpɹəʊtəˌkɒl//ˈpɹoʊtəˌkɑl/
protocol noun: the minutes, or official record, of a negotiation or transaction; especially a document drawn up officially which forms the legal basis for subsequent agreements based on it.
Noun
protocol (countable and uncountable, plural protocols)
- The minutes, or official record, of a negotiation or transaction; especially a document drawn up officially which forms the legal basis for subsequent agreements based on it.
- Another account says that, on the morning of the 31st of May, the king delivered to the prince-royal the crown, the sceptre, and the key of his treasure and gave him his blessing. The privy-counsillor Vockerodt drew up at his desire a protocol of the transaction.1842, Thomas Campbell, Frederick the Great and his Times, volume II, page 47
- An official record of a diplomatic meeting or negotiation; later specifically, a draft document setting out agreements to be signed into force by a subsequent formal treaty.
- The terms of this protocol formed the basis for the Treaty of London signed by the British, French and Russian governments on 6 July 1827.1970, Matthew Smith Anderson, The Great Powers and the Near East, 1774-1923, page 32
- An amendment to an official treaty.
- The 1992 Protocol amended the definitions of other terms, including ‘ship’, ‘oil’ and ‘incident’: Art. 2.2002, Philippe Sands, Principles of International Environmental Law, p. 917 n. 253
- The first leaf of a roll of papyrus, or the official mark typically found on such a page.
- They marked the beginning of each scroll with their protocol, a practice that continued in the papyrus trade in the Byzantine Empire [...] into the Islamic period, when there were bilingual protocols in Greek and Arabic.1991, Leila Avrin, Scribes, Script, and Books, page 146
- The official formulas which appeared at the beginning or end of certain official documents such as charters, papal bulls etc.
- The protocol of the bull contains elements that appear to be formulaic by the time of John XVIII 's pontificate.1985, Archivum Historiae Pontificiae, volume 23, page 14
- The original notes of observations made during an experiment.
- The following is an abstract of the protocol of the experiment: Tumour extract.—A measured 16 c.c. of minced Rous Sarcoma tissue was ground with sand and extracted with 400 c.c. of 0.8-per-cent. saline.1931, Gye & Purdy, The Cause of Cancer, page 194
- Synonyms:
- procedure
- The precise method for carrying out or reproducing a given experiment.
- The official rules and guidelines for heads of state and other dignitaries, governing accepted behaviour in relations with other diplomatic representatives or over affairs of state.
- Even the Queen (for whom the curtsey is a more standard address) was recently treated to an enthusiastic Obama embrace. Her Majesty, who is not normally known for partaking in such public displays of affection, seemed unperturbed by Michelle Obama's disregard for royal protocol.2009 September 19, Laura Johnson, “A mwah too far”, in The Guardian
- Synonyms:
- procedure, policy, modalities
- An accepted code of conduct; acceptable behaviour in a given situation or group.
- For those uncertain in the protocol of handshaking a formula for the perfect handshake has been devised by scientists at the University of Manchester.2010 July 16, The Guardian
- TfW has staff enforcing mask protocols at all the busy stations and most travellers oblige, albeit some with ill grace.2020 December 2, Paul Bigland, “My weirdest and wackiest Rover yet”, in Rail, page 66
- Synonyms:
- policy
- A set of formal rules describing how to transmit or exchange data, especially across a network.
- Moloch passed the message to the Behemoth / Whose master passed it on to Zebedee / It was sent by Internet, by obscure protocols / To its recipient, the delicious Miss Gee2001, “More Shopping”, in Discosis, performed by Bran Van 3000 ft. Momus
- An exception is Jabber, which is designed based on an open protocol called the extensible messaging and presence protocol (XMPP).2006, Zheng & Ni, Smart Phone and Next-Generation Mobile Computing, p. 444
- The set of instructions allowing a licensed medical professional to start, modify, or stop a medical or patient care order.
- The introduction of a liturgical preface, immediately following the Sursum corda dialogue.
- This protocol of the Preface has been constant, with minor modification, from the Apostolic Tradition, of Hippolytus in 215 A.D., the earliest extant text of the Eucharistic Prayer, to the present 2002 Missale Romanum.2010, Virgilio T.J. Suerte Felipe, The Lord’s Supper, Eucharist, Mass… What’s in a Name? […], →ISBN, pages 45–46
- The proper Preface for Eucharistic Prayer II also appears as Common Preface VI. In it, the protocol and body of the Preface structure are meshed.2011, Michael S. Driscoll, J. Michael Joncas, The Order of Mass: A Roman Missal Study Edition and Workbook, →ISBN, page 213
- In some programming languages, a data type declaring a set of members that must be implemented by a class or other data type.
- Synonyms:
- interface
Verb
protocol (third-person singular simple present protocols, present participle (US) protocoling or (UK) protocolling, simple past and past participle (US) protocoled or (UK) protocolled)
- To make a protocol of.
- To make or write protocols, or first drafts; to issue protocols.
- Serene Highnesses, who sit there protocolling and manifestoing, and consoling mankind!1837, Thomas Carlyle, chapter III, in The French Revolution: A History […], volume II (The Constitution), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, book VI (The Marseillese), page 279
protocol meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
protocol in Hindi
- computing
- प्रोटोकॉल proṭokŏl
protocol in Tamil
- நடபடி, மரபு, நெறிமுறை, நடப்பொழுங்கு, கணினியியல்
protocol in Marathi
- प्रोटोकॉल, प्रटोकॉलिंग, प्रटोकॉलींग
protocol in Urdu
- پروٹوکول, پروٹوکال, پروٹوکولنگ
More languagesFewer languages
- protocol in Bengali
- আদি লেখা, দলিলের খসড়া, মুসাবিদা
- protocol in Telugu
- ప్రోటోకాల్ prōṭōkāl
- protocol in Malayalam
- പ്രോട്ടോക്കോൾ, ഔദ്യോഗിക ആചാരമര്യാദകൾ, സാമാന്യമര്യാദ, ഔദ്യോഗികനടപടിക്രമം
- protocol in Kannada
- ಶಿಷ್ಟಾಚಾರ, ಕ್ರಮವಿಹಿತ ನಡವಳಿಕೆ, ಸಮಯಾಚಾರ, ನಯಾಚಾರ
- protocol in Punjabi
- ਪ੍ਰੋਟੋਕੋਲ, ਪਰੋਟੋਕਾਲ, ਪਰੋਟਾਕੌਲ
- protocol in Gujarati
- પ્રોટોકોલ
- protocol in Odia
- ପ୍ରୋଟୋକଲ, ପ୍ରୋଟୋକଲ୍, ପ୍ରଟୋକଲ
- protocol in Nepali
- प्रोटोकल, प्रटोकल, प्रोटोकोल
- protocol in Arabic
- بْرُوتُوكُول brotokōl
- protocol in Malay
- protokol
- protocol in Indonesian
- protokol
- protocol in Persian
- راهبرد râhbord, پروتکل porôtokol
- protocol in Thai
- พิธีสาร pí-tii-sǎan, โพรโทคอล
- protocol in Vietnamese
- giao thức
Examples of protocol in a sentence
- Founders of those kinds of platforms argue that they are just building a “protocol” ultimately led by a community of users, with the computer code effectively running the show.2021 September 5, Eric Lipton, Ephrat Livni, “Crypto’s Rapid Move Into Banking Elicits Alarm in Washington”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
- The celebrant then takes up this response in the first part of the preface itself (also known by the technical term ‘protocol’): […][2022, Uwe Michael Lang, The Roman Mass: From Early Christian Origins to Tridentine Reform, →ISBN, page 140:
Synonyms of protocol
Forms of protocol
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | protocols |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | protocols |
| present participle US | protocoling |
| present participle UK | protocolling |
| past participle US | protocoled |
| past US | protocoled |
| past participle UK | protocolled |
| past UK | protocolled |
Origin of protocol
Borrowed from Middle French protocolle, protocole (“document, record”), from Late Latin protocollum (“the first sheet of a volume (on which contents and errata were written)”), from Byzantine Greek πρωτόκολλον (prōtókollon, “first sheet glued onto a manuscript”), from πρῶτος (prôtos, “first”) + κόλλα (kólla, “glue”).
Words formed from protocol
- Address Resolution Protocol
- application protocol data unit
- bonding protocol
- Budwig protocol
- Chicago Protocol
- cryptoprotocol
- File Transfer Protocol
- immunoprotocol
- Internet Protocol
- interprotocol
- intraprotocol
- Kyoto Protocol
- layer 2 tunnelling protocol
- layer two tunnelling protocol
- metaprotocol
- Milwaukee protocol
- multiprotocol
- Needham-Schroeder protocol
- Newman-Goldfarb protocol
- Otway-Rees protocol
- preprotocol
- protocolary
- protocolic
- protocoligorically
- protocolist
- protocolization
- protocolize
- protocol sentence
- protocol stack
- pseudoprotocol
- subprotocol
- talk-aloud protocol
- talk aloud protocol
- think aloud protocol
- think-aloud protocol
- Traffic Light Protocol
- Transmission Control Protocol
- User Datagram Protocol
- Wisconsin protocol
Phrases with protocol
Questions about protocol
- What does protocol mean?
- Protocol means the minutes, or official record, of a negotiation or transaction; especially a document drawn up officially which forms the legal basis for subsequent agreements based on it.
- What is protocol in Hindi?
- Protocol in Hindi is प्रोटोकॉल (proṭokŏl). See Protocol meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use protocol in a sentence?
- Founders of those kinds of platforms argue that they are just building a “protocol” ultimately led by a community of users, with the computer code effectively running the show.
- What part of speech is protocol?
- Protocol can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce protocol?
- Protocol is pronounced /ˈpɹəʊtəˌkɒl/ (UK).
- What is the plural of protocol?
- The plural of protocol is protocols.
Words near protocol in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: protocol (page history and authors); protocol (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); protocol (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); protocol (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); protocol (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); protocol (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); protocol (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); protocol (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); protocol (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); protocol (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); protocol (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-protocol.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-protocol.wav.
Cite this entry: “protocol.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/protocol. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.