Process

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /ˈpɹəʊsÉ›s/
• US IPA: /ˈpɹɒsÉ›s/
• Canada IPA: /ˈpɹoÊŠsÉ›s/

From Old French procés ("journey"), from Latin processus, past participle of procedo

Full definition of process

Noun

1. A series of events to produce a result, especially as contrasted to product.
• 2011, September 27, Alistair Magowan, Bayern Munich 2-0 Man City, 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.
• 2013-06-22, T time, 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 “stateless income”: …. In Starbucks’s case, the firm has in effect turned the process of making an expensive cup of coffee into intellectual property.
2. This product of last month's quality standards committee is quite good, even though the process was flawed.
3. (legal) The act of serving a defendant with a summons or a writ.
4. (biology) An outgrowth of tissue or cell.
5. (anatomy) A structure that arises above a surface.
6. (computing) A task or program that is or was executing.
7. (manufacturing) A set of procedures used to produce a product, most commonly 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 chemical process in nature, and may extend also to include social or economic systems.
8. A path of succession of states through which a system passes.
• 2012-01, Robert L. Dorit, Rereading Darwin, 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 experience: the millisecond and the nanometer, the eon and the light-year.

Derived terms

Related terms

• proceed
• procedure

Verb

1. (transitive) To perform a particular process.We have processed the data using our proven techniques, and have come to the following conclusions.
2. (transitive) To treat with a substance
3. (transitive) To think an information over, or a concept, in order to assimilate it, and perhaps accept it as valid.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /prɒˈsÉ›s/

Back-formation from {{3}}

Verb

1. To walk in a procession.

Anagrams

• corpses