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procedure

n.
US //pɹəˈsidʒɝ// UK //pɹəsˈiːdʒɐ// pro·ce·dure
  1. 1 a medical operation (n.)
    B2 Upper Intermediate Medicine

    a medical treatment or operation performed by a doctor or surgeon.

    a specific surgical or diagnostic intervention performed on a patient.

    Example

    The doctor explained that the heart procedure would take about three hours.

    Example

    The surgical team performed a minimally invasive procedure to repair the damaged valve, significantly reducing the patient's recovery time.

  2. 2 legal or formal rules (n.)
    C1 Advanced Formal Law

    the formal rules used in a court of law or a large organization.

    the body of rules governing the conduct of business in a legislative, judicial, or administrative body.

    Example

    The lawyer argued that the police did not follow proper legal procedure during the arrest.

    Example

    Parliamentary procedure dictates that a motion must be seconded before it can be opened for general debate among the members.

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  1. 3 computing code (n.)
    C1 Advanced Technical Computing

    a part of a computer program that performs a specific task.

    a sequence of program instructions that perform a specific task, packaged as a unit.

    Example

    The programmer wrote a new procedure to handle the data backup every night.

    Example

    The main program calls a sorting procedure to organize the array before the final results are displayed to the user.

Origin

From French procédure, from Old French, from Latin procedere (“to go forward, proceed”); see proceed.

Word family

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