procedure

(prə-sē'jər)
n.

1. A manner of proceeding; a way of performing or effecting something: standard procedure.
2. A series of steps taken to accomplish an end: a medical procedure; evacuation procedures.
3. A set of established forms or methods for conducting the affairs of an organized body such as a business, club, or government.
4. Computer Science. A set of instructions that performs a specific task; a subroutine or function.

[French procédure, from Old French, from proceder, to proceed. See proceed.]

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(1) Manual procedures are human tasks.

(2) Machine procedures are lists of programs or operating system functions to be executed. A mainframe uses job control language (JCL). Unix systems use shell scripts. Windows machines use DOS batch files.

(3) In programming, a procedure is another term for a subroutine or function.

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noun

1. A method used in dealing with something: approach, attack, course, line, modus operandi, plan, tack, technique. See means.
2. An action calculated to achieve an end: maneuver, measure (often used in plural), move, step, tactic. See action/inaction.
3. An official or prescribed plan or course of action: line, policy, program. See planned/unplanned.

Henry Martyn Robert

In committee meetings across the US, when a question on procedure arises, members call for Robert's Rules of Order. General Henry Martyn Robert, born on this date in 1837, wrote his handbook on parliamentary procedure after he was embarrassed to realize that he could not run a simple church meeting. He based his rules loosely on the debate rules used in the US House of Representatives. Robert was an army engineer who designed the defenses for Washington, DC, during the US Civil War.

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From our Archives: Today's Highlights, May 2, 2006

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This entry contains information applicable to United States law only.

The methods by which legal rights are enforced; the specific machinery for carrying on a lawsuit, including process, the pleadings, rules of evidence, and rules of civil procedure or criminal procedure.

The form, manner, and order of steps taken in conducting a lawsuit are all regulated by procedural law, which regulates how the law will be administered. Substantive law creates and defines rights that exist under the law.

See: civil procedure.

(DOD) A procedure begins with a specific, documentable event that causes an activity to occur. The activity must produce a product that normally affects another external organization. Frequently, that product will be the event that causes another procedure to occur. It is important to recognize that a procedure determines "what" an organization must do at critical periods but does not direct "how" it will be done.

IN BRIEF: A way or method of doing something.

Treating people the way that they would like to be treated should be a standard operating procedure for all of us in business. — Dan Brent Burt

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A series of predetermined maneuvers for the orderly transfer of an aircraft under instrument flight conditions from the beginning of the initial approach to a landing or to a point from which a landing may be made visually or the missed approach procedure is initiated.

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The process of entrapping a liquid into a solid by some physical means, the purpose of which is to protect the liquid from oxidation, evaporation, or other detrimental alteration. The processing of material in such a way surrounds it with a protective coating. See Spray Drying, Extrusion, Emulsifying Agent.

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(prō-sē′jur)
n

A series of steps followed in a regular, orderly, definite way, by which a desired result is accomplished.

For a list of words related to procedure, see:

• Business and Practice of Medicine - procedure: any medical service that requires patient to be cut, jabbed, injected, or tested
• General Technology - procedure: logical set of program commands called by single name

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See words rhyming with "procedure."

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Common misspelling(s) of procedure

• proceedure
• procedger

Dansk (Danish)
n. - fremgangsmåde, forretningsgang

Nederlands (Dutch)
procedure, werkwijze, deel van computerprogramma

Français (French)
n. - (gén) procédure, (Comput) procédure

Deutsch (German)
n. - Prozedur, Verfahren

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - διαδικασία, μέθοδος, (νομ.) δικονομία, (Η/Υ) υπορουτίνα

Italiano (Italian)
procedura, prassi

Português (Portuguese)
n. - procedimento (m)

Русский (Russian)
процедура, метод, процесс

Español (Spanish)
n. - procedimiento, trámites, reglamento

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - procedur, förfarande, tillvägagångssätt, metod, åtgärd

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
程序, 手续, 过程

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 程式, 手續, 過程

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 순서, 절차, 조건

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 進行, 手順, 処置, 手続き, 行為

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) إجراء‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮הליך, נוהל, פרוצדורה‬

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