code

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(kōd) pronunciation
n.
  1. A systematically arranged and comprehensive collection of laws.
  2. A systematic collection of regulations and rules of procedure or conduct: a traffic code.
    1. A system of signals used to represent letters or numbers in transmitting messages.
    2. A system of symbols, letters, or words given certain arbitrary meanings, used for transmitting messages requiring secrecy or brevity.
  3. A system of symbols and rules used to represent instructions to a computer; a computer program.
  4. Genetics. The genetic code.
  5. Slang. A patient whose heart has stopped beating, as in cardiac arrest.

v., cod·ed, cod·ing, codes.

v.tr.
  1. To systematize and arrange (laws and regulations) into a code.
  2. To convert (a message, for example) into code.
v.intr.
  1. Genetics. To specify the genetic code for an amino acid or a polypeptide.
  2. Computer Science. To write or revise a computer program.
  3. Slang. To go into cardiac arrest.

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin cōdex, book. See codex.]



System of symbols and rules used for expressing information according to an unvarying rule for replacing a piece of information from one system, such as a letter, word, or phrase, with an arbitrarily selected equivalent in another system. Substitution ciphers are similar to codes except that the rule for replacing the information is known only to the transmitter and the intended recipient of the information. Binary code and other machine languages used in digital computers are examples of codes. Elaborate commercial codes were developed during the early 20th century ( Jean M.E. Baudot, Samuel F. B. Morse). In recent years more advanced codes have been developed to accommodate computer data and satellite communications. ASCII, cryptography.

For more information on code, visit Britannica.com.

code

A series of instructions designed to be fed into a computer. A short code is called a program.

(1) A set of machine symbols that represents data or instructions. See data code and machine language.

(2) Any representation of one set of data for another. For example, a parts code is an abbreviated name of a product, product type or category. A discount code is a percentage.

(3) To write a program. See coding, source code and line of code.

(4) To encode for security purposes. See cryptography and coding.

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Symbolic representation of a piece of information, such as a social security number that represents a U.S. Citizen in, various file systems. Used for many purposes, codes store information efficiently in computer files and help to organize output from those files in a meaningful way. Codes assigned to various types of promotions such as direct-mail packages, cents-off coupons, space ads, and catalog order forms are used as the basis for organizing the results of those promotions in response analysis reports. See also alphanumeric; key code; matchcode.



1. the Internal Revenue Code. The latest version, the internal revenue code of 1986 (irc), comprises the collective statutes govern- ing the federal taxation of income, estates, gifts, employment, and excise transactions.


2. the instructions within a computer program, known as source code.


3. compilation of laws, such as the Motor Vehicle Code.

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1. n. The stuff that software writers write, either in source form or after translation by a compiler or assembler. Often used in opposition to “data”, which is the stuff that code operates on. Among hackers this is a mass noun, as in “How much code does it take to do a bubble sort?”, or “The code is loaded at the high end of RAM.” Among scientific programmers it is sometimes a count noun equilvalent to “program”; thus they may speak of “codes” in the plural. Anyone referring to software as “the software codes” is probably a newbie or a suit.

2. v. To write code. In this sense, always refers to source code rather than compiled. “I coded an Emacs clone in two hours!” This verb is a bit of a cultural marker associated with the Unix and minicomputer traditions (and lately Linux); people within that culture prefer v. ‘code’ to v. ‘program’ whereas outside it the reverse is normally true.


n. 1. any system of communication in which arbitrary groups of symbols represent units of plain text of varying length. Codes may be used for brevity or for security.

2. a crypto-system in which the cryptographic equivalents (usually called “code groups”) typically consisting of letters or digits (or both) in otherwise meaningless combinations are substituted for plain text elements which are primarily words, phrases, or sentences.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

code, a shared set of rules or conventions by which signs can be combined to permit a message to be communicated from one person to another; it may consist of a language in the normal sense (e.g. English, Urdu) or of a smaller‐scale ‘language’ such as the set of hand‐signals, horns, grimaces, and flashing lights used by motorists. The code is one of the six essential elements in Roman Jakobson's influential theory of communication (see function), and has an important place in structuralist theories, which stress the extent to which messages (including literary works) call upon already coded meanings rather than fresh revelations of raw reality. An important work in this connection is Roland Barthes's S/Z (1970), in which a story by Balzac is broken down into five codes, ranging from the ‘hermeneutic code’ (which sets up a mystery and delays its solution) to the ‘cultural code’ (which refers to accepted prejudices, stereotypes, and values).

Verbs: codify, decode, encode.


1. A legal instrument adopted within a political jurisdiction (such as a town, county, state, province, parish, etc.) that prescribes the minimum acceptable levels of the design, construction, installation, and performance of materials, components, devices, items of equipment, appliances used in a building, or building systems and/or subsystems.
2. A published body of rules and regulations for building practices, materials, and installations, designed to protect the health, welfare, and safety of the public, such as a building code, health code, etc. Codes established by municipal, state, or federal authorities usually have the power of law.


in communications
in law

code, in communications, set of symbols and rules for their manipulation by which the symbols can be made to carry information. By this extended definition all written and spoken languages are codes. While these are sufficient and actually quite efficient in transmission of information, they are at times ambiguous and are highly inefficient for telecommunications. For example, a circuit capable of carrying a voice message, e.g., a telephone circuit, could carry several times as much information if that information were represented as telegraphic code.

Generally speaking, information theory shows that for any particular application there is an optimum code; it does not, unfortunately, tell how to devise the code. Morse code, consisting of a series of dots and dashes, or marks and spaces, is commonly used in telegraphy. In a computer, information is digitally encoded as strings of binary digits or bits. ASCII, the American Standard Code for Information Interchange, and Unicode are two ways representing alphanumeric characters in a binary form.

Special error-detecting codes are used extensively in digital systems to ensure the successful transfer of data. One method uses an extra bit, called a parity-check bit; if each bit is considered as a 1 or 0 (depending on whether or not it is set), the sum of a fixed number of bits can be made even (or odd) by properly setting the parity bit to a one or zero. Errors are detected on the receiving end simply by checking whether each received word is even (or odd). Audio data on a compact disc is digitally encoded and a special error correcting code is used to detect and correct errors that may have been introduced through manufacturing error or are created during the reading or playing process.

Certain arbitrary codes are used to ensure secrecy of communication; merely the message, without the rules by which the symbols are associated, will not provide an eavesdropper with an understandable version of it. See cryptography; signaling.

Bibliography

See P. Lunde, ed., The Book of Codes (2009).

code, in law, in its widest sense any body of legal rules expressed in fixed and authoritative written form. A statute thus may be termed a code. Codes contrast with customary law (including common law), which is susceptible of various nonbinding formulations, as in the legal opinions of judges. The earliest codes (e.g., the Roman Twelve Tables) met the popular demand that oral regulations be written down so that legal chicanery might be prevented. In later Roman law, however, the term code acquired its modern meaning of a precisely formulated statement of the principles underlying some branch of law (e.g., contracts) or an entire legal system. One of the greatest codes was the Roman Corpus Juris Civilis. In Europe, in the late 18th cent., after the general adoption of civil law by the continental countries, jurists asserted that similar codes were needed, and the parent modern European codification, the Code Napoléon, appeared (1804) and was followed by many others. The civil law code is an attempt to determine in advance what legal exigencies will arise and to furnish the means for meeting them. Basic legal principles (e.g., that contracts express the will of the parties) are worked out in systematic detail and great attention is given to consistency. The movement for codification, however, has been largely unsuccessful in countries where common law prevails, such as the United States, despite the argument that the principles of common law are sometimes uncertain and often contradict one another. Advocates of the common law assert that civil law makes possibly futile attempts to predict and control the course of developments. In the United States the term code is sometimes also applied to the statutes of a state or of the federal government that have been edited to eliminate duplication and inconsistencies and arranged under appropriate headings.


This entry contains information applicable to United States law only.

A systematic and comprehensive compilation of laws, rules, or regulations that are consolidated and classified according to subject matter.

Many states have published official codes of all laws in force, including the common law and statutes as judicially interpreted, that have been compiled by code commissions and enacted by legislatures. The U.S. Code (U.S.C.) is the compilation of federal laws.

(DOD) 1. Any system of communication in which arbitrary groups of symbols represent units of plain text of varying length. Codes may be used for brevity or for security. 2. A cryptosystem in which the cryptographic equivalents (usually called "code groups"), typically consisting of letters or digits (or both) in otherwise meaningless combinations, are substituted for plain text elements which are primarily words, phrases, or sentences. See also cryptosystem.

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pronunciation

IN BRIEF: n. - A system used for transmitting messages requiring brevity or secrecy; the symbolic arrangement of data or instructions in a computer program or the set of such instructions. Also: Any systematic collection or digest of laws.

pronunciation "You, who are on the road, must have a code that you can live by-" — Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young

Tutor's tip: A "coda" is a summarizing part that is somehow separate from the whole, a "code" is a set of symbols, while a "coed" is either a female student or a term that indicates a school has both make and female students.

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The number assigned to a particular multiple pulse reply signal transmitted by a transponder (ICAO).

  1. any system of symbols, together with the rules for their association, that can be used to represent or transfer information; e.g. the genetic code.
  2. to contain, to be arranged in, or to be expressed through a code; used especially of DNA and mRNA. A gene is said to code for (or encode) its protein product. Compare decoding.

Previous:cod-liver oil, cocktail, cochromatography
Next:coded amino acid, codehydrase I, codehydrase II

1. a set of rules governing one's conduct. Called also ethical code.
2. a system by which information can be communicated.
3. a set of alphabetical or numerical markers which are an index to a much larger bank of information.

  • c. of ethics — see code of ethics.
  • genetic c. — the arrangement of nucleotides in the polynucleotide chain of a chromosome that governs the transmission of genetic information to proteins, i.e. determines the sequence of amino acids in the polypeptide chain making up each protein synthesized by the cell. See also genetic code.
  • c. of practice/conduct — a document produced by an authoritative body to provide a guide to people in their conduct relative to, for example, animal welfare, or their practice, for example, in the housing and feeding of pigs. It is the sort of document that is used when testing in a practical situation rules which are planned to be included in subsequent legislation.

n

1. a system of recording information by symbols so that only selected people will know the meaning. Used also to conserve space. 2. a systematic statement.

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Random House Word Menu by Stephen Glazier
For a list of words related to code, see:

  See crossword solutions for the clue Code.

Coding may refer to:

  • Channel coding in coding theory
  • Line coding
  • Computer programming, the process of designing, writing, testing, debugging / troubleshooting, and maintaining the source code of computer programs
  • The process of Statistical classification of information
  • Coding (social sciences), refers to an analytical process in which data, in both quantitative form (such as questionnaires results) or qualitative (such as interview transcripts) are categorised to facilitate analysis
  • Coding (therapy), a controversial therapy used to treat addictions
  • Legal coding, the process of creating summary or keyword data from a document. It is widely used in the legal profession to create a fast-search index or database of documents for use in litigation
  • A coding strand of DNA is translated into a protein product
  • Present progressive tense for Code Blue, which is a patient in Cardiac Arrest or Respiratory Arrest

See also

  • Code, a rule for converting a piece of information (for example, a letter, word, phrase, or gesture) into another form or representation (one sign into another sign), not necessarily of the same type
  • Entropy encoding, a lossless data compression scheme that is independent of the specific characteristics of the medium
  • Source coding
  • Medical coding

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - kode, kodet tekst, kodeks, moral
v. tr. - omsætte til kode
v. intr. - specificere den genetiske kode for en aminosyre, få hjertestop

idioms:

  • code name    kodenavn
  • code of conduct    uskrevne love
  • code of practice    normalkodeks
  • code word    kodeord

Nederlands (Dutch)
code, wetboek, (gedrags)voor- schriften, telefonisch kengetal, geldende normen, coderen

Français (French)
n. - code, règlements, code civil, code de conduite, code (message), (Fin) code (de succursale), (Télécom) indicatif, (Comput) code
v. tr. - (gén, Comput) coder
v. intr. - (Gén) déterminer le code de, faire un arrêt cardiaque

idioms:

  • code name    nom de code
  • code of conduct    code de conduite
  • code of practice    code déontologique, conditions générales (banque), code de bonne conduite (publicité)
  • code word    mot de passe

Deutsch (German)
v. - kodieren, chiffrieren, verschlüsseln
n. - Kodex, Gesetzbuch, Vorwahl, Kode, Geheimschrift

idioms:

  • code name    Deckname
  • code of conduct    Verhaltenskodex
  • code of practice    Berufsrichtlinien
  • code word    Kennwort

Ελληνική (Greek)
v. - κωδικοποιώ, κωδικογραφώ
n. - κώδικας

idioms:

  • code name    κωδικός, συνθηματική λέξη μυστικής επιχείρησης
  • code of conduct    κώδικας συμπεριφοράς
  • code of practice    κώδικας δεοντολογίας
  • code word    κωδική λέξη, σύνθημα

Italiano (Italian)
codificare, cifrare, codice, prefisso

idioms:

  • code name    parola d'ordine, codice
  • code of conduct    norme sociali
  • code of practice    codice professionale
  • code word    parola chiave
  • Morse code    alfabeto Morse
  • zip code    codice di avviamento postale

Português (Portuguese)
v. - codificar, cifrar, traduzir em código
n. - código (m), cifra (f), coleção (f) de leis

idioms:

  • bar code    código (m) de barras
  • code name    nome (m) em código
  • code of conduct    código (m) de conduta
  • code of practice    código (m) de prática
  • code word    cifra (f)
  • dialling code    código (m) de discagem
  • Morse code    código (m) Morse
  • zip code    código (m) de endereçamento postal

Русский (Russian)
кодировать, кодекс, нормативное положение, код, поведение по данным традициям

idioms:

  • bar code    штриховой код, компьютерное наименование
  • code name    кодовое имя, наименование
  • code of conduct    кодекс поведения
  • code of practice    кодекс поведения/обращения с публикой
  • code word    эвфемизм, условленное слово для дешифровки сообщения
  • dialling code    телефонный код
  • Morse code    азбука Морзе
  • zip code    почтовый индекс

Español (Spanish)
n. - código, código civil, prefijo, cifra, clave
v. tr. - cifrar, codificar
v. intr. - poner en clave, poner en código

idioms:

  • code name    nombre en clave
  • code of conduct    código de comportamiento
  • code of practice    código de conducta, código deontológico
  • code word    palabra en clave

Svenska (Swedish)
v. - koda, kodifiera
n. - lagsamling, kod

中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
编码, 电码, 法典, 把...编码, 制成法典, 指定遗传密码

idioms:

  • code name    代号, 编号
  • code of conduct    礼貌规范
  • code of practice    工作准则
  • code word    约定言辞, 暗语

中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 編碼, 電碼, 法典
v. tr. - 把...編碼, 製成法典
v. intr. - 指定遺傳密碼

idioms:

  • code name    代號, 編號
  • code of conduct    禮貌規範
  • code of practice    工作準則
  • code word    約定言辭, 暗語

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 법전, 규약, 암호, 부호
v. tr. - 법전으로 작성하다, 암호로 하다, ~을 코드화하다
v. intr. - 유전암호를 지정하다

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 符号, 暗号, 規則, 法典
v. - 暗号にする, 符号化する

idioms:

  • code name    コード名
  • code of conduct    電動記号, 掟
  • code of practice    作業標準
  • code word    コード名, 婉曲語句
  • dialling code    加入番号

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(فعل) شفر, حول رساله الى رموز (الاسم) قانون, شريعه, نظام, شفرة, رموز‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮צופן, קוד, עקרונות, כללים, קובץ חוקים, טקסט של תוכנת מחשב, המוסר השולט בחברה מסוימת, מוסר התנהגות אישי‬
v. tr. - ‮רשם בכתב-סתרים, קודד, הצפין, ציפן‬
v. intr. - ‮היה הצופן הגנטי ל-‬


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