process

A series of events leading to a result or product.

Noun

  1. A series of events leading to a result or product.
    • This product of last month's quality standards committee is quite good, even though the process was flawed.
    • But they came up against an impressive force in Bayern, who extended their run to 10 wins on the trot, having scored 28 goals in the process and conceding none. - 2011 September 27, Alistair Magowan, “Bayern Munich 2-0...
    • Yet in “Through a Latte, Darkly”, a new study of how Starbucks has largely avoided paying tax in Britain, Edward Kleinbard […] shows that current tax rules make it easy for all sorts of firms to generate what he calls...
  2. The set of procedures used in the manufacture of a product, especially in the food and chemical industries.
    • 1960, Mack Tyner, Process Engineering Calculations: Material and Energy Balances – Ordinarily a process plant will use a steam boiler to supply its process heat requirements and to drive a steam-turbine generator.
    • 1987, J. R. Richards, Principles of control system design in Modelling and control of fermentation processes – The words plant or process infer generally any dynamic system, be it primarily mechanical, electrical, or...
  3. A path or succession of states through which a system passes.
    • We live our lives in three dimensions for our threescore and ten allotted years. Yet every branch of contemporary science, from statistics to cosmology, alludes to processes that operate on scales outside of human...
  4. Successive physiological responses to keep or restore health.
  5. Documents issued by a court in the course of a lawsuit or action at law, such as a summons, mandate, or writ.
    • But if either at Calling by the Clerk, after the Session Bell, or before the Ordinary by the Roll, an Advocat compears, and craves to be Marked for the Defender, and to see the Process; The Clerk in the first Case, and...
  6. An outgrowth of tissue arising above a surface, such as might form part of a joint or the attachment point for a muscle.
  7. An executable task or program.
  8. The centre mark that players aim at in the game of squails.

Origin

From Middle English proces, from Old French procés (“journey”), from Latin prōcessus (“course, progression”), nominalization of prōcēdō (“proceed, advance”).

Forms

processes

Hyponyms

acromial process Augustin process Bell-Krupp process Bell process Bergius process Bernoulli process Bessemer process Bethell process Birkeland-Eyde process blue line process Breit-Wheeler process Charmat process Chinese restaurant process Chorleywood process Deacon process Downs process Downs' process Hawkes process jump process Lincoln County process Mannheim process Markov renewal process Pattinson process Poisson process

Related

proceed procedure

Derived

abuse of process Acheson process acrocoracoid process alveolar process ammonia process ammonia-soda process autoprocess background process barrel process basic process batch process bioprocess bodily process Bower-Barff process branching process carbon process Castner process Catalan process cazo process ciliary process clinoid process cold rain process contact process coprocess

Verb Entry 2

  1. To perform a particular process on a thing.
    • Processing the harvested cocoons begins with grading and then boiling them in soapy water to soften the sericin that binds the fibers together. - 2026, Elise Young, “Yagaa: Reviving Sericulture in Southern Mexico”, in...
  2. To retrieve, store, classify, manipulate, transmit etc. (data, signals, etc.), especially using computer techniques.
    • We have processed the data using our proven techniques, and have come to the following conclusions.
    • If you process you own digital files, it's as time consuming, or maybe even more time consuming, than it is to process and print your own film. - 2006, Michael Grecco, Lighting and the Dramatic Portrait, Amphoto Books,...
    • CBP told CNN it currently processes “nearly 4 million duty-free de minimis shipments a day.” - 2025 May 2, Elisabeth Buchwald and Ramishah Maruf, “A massive tariff on millions of Americans’ purchases just went into...
  3. To think about a piece of information, or a concept, in order to assimilate it, and perhaps accept it in a modified state.
    • I didn't know she had a criminal record. That will take me a while to process.
  4. To develop photographic film.
  5. To take legal proceedings against.
    • When I saw that he would not let me alone, I processed him for £12. My mother was with his brother John, and he allowed her six guineas for clothes; and if she did not want the money, he would allow it to me in the...

Forms

processes processing processed

Derived

autoprocess bioprocess geoprocess hydroprocess lyoprocess misprocess overprocess photoprocess postprocess preprocess processability processable processed processible processor reprocess subprocess underprocess unprocessability wordprocess

Verb Entry 3

  1. To walk in a procession, especially in a liturgical context.
    • Prayers completed and Psalms ending, patriarch, emperor, and their sumptuously clad entourages move past the open, silver-clad wings of the Imperial Door and process into the crowded nave and continue to the sanctuary...

Origin

Back-formation from procession.

Forms

processes processing processed