code

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   Instructions written in a programming language that tell a computer what to do.

   She spent the morning fixing a bug in the code.

2. 2
   verb

   To write instructions for a computer in a programming language.

   I learned to code on a home computer in the 1980s.

3. 3
   noun

   A set of rules or principles that guide behaviour within a group or profession.

   Every member must follow the company's code of conduct.

4. 4
   noun

   A system of symbols or signals used to send messages secretly.

   The spies sent their messages in code.

5. 5
   verb

   To put a message into a secret system of symbols.

   We should code the message for security reasons.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Code comes from Latin codex, whose meaning developed from a block of wood to a block split into writing tablets, and hence a book. In English it first referred to a system of laws; the sense of secret or encoded writing arose in the early 19th century from naval flag signals, and the computing sense dates from the 1940s.

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”).

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External links

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• Cambridge Dictionary
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