Code Meaning
/kəʊd/Definition, CEFR level A1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA short textual designation, often with little relation to the item it represents.
nounA body of law, sanctioned by legislation, in which the rules of law to be specifically applied by the courts are set forth in systematic form; a compilation of laws by public authority; a digest.
Sentence Examples
Frank left a message by means of a secret code.
Can you tell me what the zip code is for New York?
The programmer wrote a clean code block to solve the problem.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The spy memorized the secret ____ before destroying the paper.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
You need to enter the correct ____ to open the security door.
Word Origin & History
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”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"the mild and impartial spirit which pervades the Code compiled under Canute"
— 1872, Francis Wharton, A Treatise on the Conflict of Laws:
"[Isaac Newton] was obsessed with alchemy. He spent hours copying alchemical recipes and trying to replicate them in his laboratory. He believed that the Bible contained numerological codes."
— 2014 June 21, “Magician’s brain”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8892:
"The resulting citation collection was databased and coded for meaning, etymon, and date range (earliest and latest occurrence found)."
— 2018, James Lambert, “A multitude of ‘lishes’: The nomenclature of hybridity”, in English World-Wide, page 5:
Explore More A1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The spy memorized the secret ____ before destroying the paper.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
You need to enter the correct ____ to open the security door.