process
Pluralprocesses
Verbprocesses, processing, processed
Pluralprocesses
Formsprocesses, processing, processed
- 1A series of actions, steps or natural changes that happen one after another and lead to a result, as in the approval process, the aging process or the healing process.
The approval process for the loan took nearly a month.
Turning grapes into wine is a process that depends on careful timing.
UsageIn the process means along the way. In the process of + -ing means begun but not finished: in the process of moving.
- 2To put something through a series of operations or treatments in order to change, prepare or deal with it, as with raw materials, applications or photographic film.
The plant processes raw ore into usable metal.
They process the grain before shipping it to bakeries.
UsageOften as an adjective: processed food, processed cheese; applications and orders also get processed.
- 3To perform operations on data or signals, such as retrieving, storing, sorting, altering, or transmitting them, especially by computer.
The server processes millions of transactions every hour.
Engineers wrote code to process the raw sensor signals.
Similarhandle, manipulate, analyze
Note
In photography the data sense meets the older darkroom verb: Michael Grecco's Lighting and the Dramatic Portrait (2006) sets processing digital files beside developing film and printing it and finds the digital job at least as slow. The subject can be a person or a machine, as when a server processes transactions. The object is usually plural or a mass noun: data, files, signals, transactions.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Michael Grecco wrote Lighting and the Dramatic Portrait, published in 2006. en.wikipedia.org
- The comparison includes both processing and printing film, not developing film alone. en.wiktionary.org
- 4The method and operations by which a product is made, especially in the food or chemical industry.
The company patented a process for refining sugar more cheaply.
Engineers redesigned the brewing process to cut waste.
Similarmethod, technique, procedure
Note
Industry narrows the word to a fixed, repeatable method of making something, and it often works as a modifier: process plant, process heat, process engineering. Mack Tyner's Process Engineering Calculations (1960) has a process plant meeting its process heat requirements with a steam boiler. Engineers can also use the word for the whole working system, not just its steps, so plant and process become near-interchangeable.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
- Mack Tyner wrote Process Engineering Calculations. iucat.iu.edu
- Tyner's book describes a process plant using a steam boiler to supply its process heat requirements. en.wiktionary.org
- 5An executable task or program, especially one currently running on a computer.
The operating system assigns memory to every running process.
A background process kept slowing the computer down.
Note
Computing gives the word a concrete, countable form. A process is a program as a live task, something the operating system schedules and assigns memory to. That is the useful line between it and program, which can sit unused on a disk. Talk of a background process or a running process belongs here. What such processes do to data is the data-handling verb.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- A computing process executes a program and receives system resources, including memory. sourceware.org
- The operating system schedules computing tasks. kernel.org
- A program can exist as a stored file before being executed in a process. sourceware.org
Less common meanings
- 6To think over a piece of information or an idea in order to take it in, perhaps accepting it in a changed form.
It took her weeks to process the news of the layoffs.
Therapists help clients process difficult memories at their own pace.
UsageOften with time: it takes time to process bad news; give someone time to process it.
Similarabsorb, digest, assimilate, accept
Note
A figurative stretch of the data-handling verb: the mind is pictured as working through information until it fits. The figure suggests that what is taken in may come out changed, which is what separates it from simply hearing or learning something.
- 7An outgrowth of tissue rising above a surface, often forming part of a joint or a place where a muscle attaches.
The surgeon trimmed the bony process pressing on the nerve.
Each vertebra has a process that the back muscles attach to.
Similarprojection, outgrowth, protuberance
Note
Anatomy's process is a thing, not an event: a knob, spur or ridge of tissue, often bone, jutting from a surface. The Latin idea of advancing behind the general sense survives here as something that goes forward out of a bodily structure's surface. The word is countable and usually qualified by material or location, as in a bony process or the process of a vertebra.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- An anatomical process is a projection of tissue, including bone. en.wikipedia.org
- The word derives from Latin expressing progression or advancing. en.wiktionary.org
- A process projects from the surface of a bodily structure, such as a bone; it need not project from the body's external surface. openstax.org
- 8The documents issued by a court during a lawsuit, such as a summons, mandate, or writ.
The defendant claimed he never received the process from the court.
The judge dismissed the suit because the plaintiff never properly served process on the defendant.
Note
Legal process is the paperwork that moves a case forward, and it behaves as a mass noun: one serves process, receives process, sees the process. Service of process is the fixed phrase for delivering it to the named party. John Spotiswood's The Form of Process (1711) has an advocate asking "to see the Process," meaning the court papers. Its verb partner is taking someone to law.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
- John Spotiswood wrote The Form of Process, first published in 1711. en.wikisource.org
- The work describes an advocate requesting to see the court papers, using the words “to see the Process.” en.wiktionary.org
- 9Saypruh-SES/pɹəˈsɛs/To walk in a procession, especially during a religious or ceremonial occasion.
The clergy process to the altar carrying candles and incense.
Mourners processed behind the coffin through the village.
UsageUsually followed by a direction: process into the church, process down the aisle.
Similarparade, march, file, walk
Note
A separate word that only looks like the others: it was back-formed from procession, not built on the general noun. Robert S. Nelson's Hagia Sophia, 1850–1950 (2004) has patriarch and emperor process into the crowded nave and on to the sanctuary.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- The verb meaning to walk in a procession is a back-formation from procession, rather than a formation from the general noun process. en.wiktionary.org
- Robert S. Nelson wrote Hagia Sophia, 1850–1950, published in 2004. bibliovault.org
- Nelson describes the patriarch and emperor processing into the crowded nave and continuing to the sanctuary. en.wiktionary.org
- 10To begin formal legal proceedings against a person or party.
Similarprosecute, charge, indict
Note
The verb of the court papers: to process someone is to set the law's machinery moving against them. An 1845 report of Her Majesty's Commissioners of inquiry records a witness saying he "processed him for £12." That gives the construction: process someone for a sum. The person sued is the direct object, and the amount claimed follows for.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 1 fact
- Her Majesty's Commissioners of Inquiry produced the report in 1845. slq.qld.gov.au
- 11The central mark on the board that players aim their pieces at in the game of squails.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origins
Latin prōcēdō ("proceed, advance") had a noun form, prōcessus ("course, progression"), which became Old French procés ("journey") and then Middle English proces.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- Latin prōcēdō meant “proceed, advance”. en.wiktionary.org
- Prōcessus, meaning “course, progression”, was a noun derived from prōcēdō. en.wiktionary.org
- Old French procés came from Latin processus. en.wiktionary.org
- Old French procés meant “journey”. en.wiktionary.org
- Middle English proces came from Old French procés. en.wiktionary.org
Formed as a back-formation from procession.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Process, meaning to walk in a procession, was formed as a back-formation from procession. en.wiktionary.org