a system for communication by telegraph, heliograph, etc., in which long and short sounds, light flashes, etc., are used to symbolize the content of a message: Morse code.
2.
a system used for brevity or secrecy of communication, in which arbitrarily chosen words, letters, or symbols are assigned definite meanings.
3.
any set of standards set forth and enforced by a local government agency for the protection of public safety, health, etc., as in the structural safety of buildings (building code), health requirements for plumbing, ventilation, etc. (sanitary or health code), and the specifications for fire escapes or exits (fire code).
4.
a systematically arranged collection or compendium of laws, rules, or regulations.
5.
any authoritative, general, systematic, and written statement of the legal rules and principles applicable in a given legal order to one or more broad areas of life.
6.
a word, letter, number, or other symbol used in a code system to mark, represent, or identify something: The code on the label shows the date of manufacture.
7.
Computers. the symbolic arrangement of statements or instructions in a computer program in which letters, digits, etc. are represented as binary numbers; the set of instructions in such a program: That program took 3000 lines of code. Compare ASCII, object code, source code.
8.
any system or collection of rules and regulations: a gentleman's code of behavior.
9.
Medicine/Medical. a directive or alert to a hospital team assigned to emergency resuscitation of patients.
the system of rules shared by the participants in an act of communication, making possible the transmission and interpretation of messages.
b.
(in sociolinguistic theory) one of two distinct styles of language use that differ in degree of explicitness and are sometimes thought to be correlated with differences in social class. Compare elaborated code, restricted code.
–verb (used with object)
12.
to translate (a message) into a code; encode.
13.
to arrange or enter (laws or statutes) in a code.
14.
Computers. to translate (a program) into language that can be communicated to the computer.
–verb (used without object)
15.
Genetics. to specify the amino acid sequence of a protein by the sequence of nucleotides comprising the gene for that protein: a gene that codes for the production of insulin.
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. Special codes are also used for representing data inside a computer. 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, is one popular way to represent alphanumeric characters in a binary form. Special error-detecting codes are used extensively in digital systems to ensure the successful transfer of data. One popular 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.
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Audio Help [kohd] Pronunciation Key noun, verb, cod·ed, cod·ing. 