n. [ F., fr. L. codex, 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. ] 1. A 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. [ 1913 Webster ] ☞ The collection of laws made by the order of Justinian is sometimes called, by way of eminence, “The Code” . Wharton. [ 1913 Webster ] 2. Any system of rules or regulations relating to one subject; as, the medical code, a system of rules for the regulation of the professional conduct of physicians. [ 1913 Webster ] 3. Any set of symbols or combinations of symbols used for communication in any medium, such as by telegraph or semaphore. See Morse code, and error-correcting code. [ PJC ] A system of rules for making communications at sea by means of signals has been referred to as the
naval code. [ 1913 Webster ] 4. Any set of standards established by the governing authority of a geopolitical entity restricting the ways that certain activities may be performed, especially the manner in which buildings or specific systems within buildings may be constructed; as, a building code; a plumbing code; a health code. [ PJC ] 5. Any system used for secrecy in communication, in which the content of a communication is converted, prior to transmission, into symbols whose meaning is known only to authorized recipients of the message; such codes are used to prevent unauthorized persons from learning the content of the communication. The process of converting a communication into secret symbols by means of a code is called encoding or encryption. However, unauthorized persons may learn the code by various means, as in code-breaking. [ PJC ] 6. An error-correcting code. See below. [ PJC ] 7. (Computers) The set of instructions for a computer program written by a programmer, usually in a programming language such as Fortran, C, Cobol, Java, C++, etc.; also, the executable binary object code. All such programs except for the binary object code must be converted by a compiler program into object code, which is the arrangement of data bits which can be directly interpreted by a computer. [ PJC ]
Code civil or
Code Napoleon, a code enacted in France in 1803 and 1804, embodying the law of rights of persons and of property generally. Abbot.
error-correcting code (Computers) A set of symbols used to represent blocks of binary data, in which the original block of data is represented by a larger block of data which includes additional bits arranged in such a way that the original data may be read even if one or more of the bits of the encoded data is changed, as in a noisy communicaiton channel. Various codes are available which can correct different numbers or patterns of errors in the transmitted data. Such codes are used to achieve higher accuracy in data transmission, and in data storage devices such as disk drives and tape drives.
object code (Computers) the arrangement of bits stored in computer memory or a data storage device which, when fed to the instruction processor of a computer's central processing unit, can be interpreted directly as instructions for execution.
genetic code (Biochemistry, genetics) The set of correspondences between sequences of three bases (codons) in a RNA chain to the amino acid which those three bases represent in the process of protein synthesis. Thus, the sequence UUU codes for phenylalanine, and AUG codes for methionine. There are twenty-one naturally-occurring amino acids, and sixty-four possible arrangements of three bases in RNA; thus some of the amino acids are represented by more than one codon. Several codons do not represent amino acids, but cause termination of the synthesis of a growing amnio acid chain. [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]
The genetic code is represented by the following table: The Genetic Code
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UUU Phenylalanine (Phe) AUU Isoleucine (Ile)
UCU Serine (Ser) ACU Threonine (Thr)
UAU Tyrosine (Tyr) AAU Asparagine (Asn)
UGU Cysteine (Cys) AGU Serine (Ser)
UUC Phe AUC Ile
UCC Ser ACC Thr
UAC Tyr AAC Asn
UGC Cys AGC Ser
UUA Leucine (Leu) AUA Ile
UCA Ser ACA Thr
UAA STOP AAA Lysine (Lys)
UGA STOP AGA Arginine (Arg)
UUG Leu AUG Methionine (Met) or START
UCG Ser ACG Thr
UAG STOP AAG Lys
UGG Tryptophan (Trp) AGG Arg
CUU Leucine (Leu) GUU Valine Val
CCU Proline (Pro) GCU Alanine (Ala)
CAU Histidine (His) GAU Aspartic acid (Asp)
CGU Arginine (Arg) GGU Glycine (Gly)
CUC Leu GUC (Val)
CCU Pro GCC Ala
CAC His GAC Asp
CGC Arg GGC Gly
CUA Leu GUA Val
CCA Pro GCA Ala
CAA Glutamine (Gln) GAA Glutamic acid (Glu)
CGA Arg GGA Gly
CUG Leu GUG Val
CCG Pro GCG Ala
CAG Gln GAG Glu
CGG Arg GGG Gly
[ PJC ] | 
