Word
refactoring
Definition
n. the act of cleaning up or reorganising computer code to make it easier to understand and maintain.
n. the process of restructuring existing computer code to improve internal quality attributes without changing external functionality.
Examples
“The team spent the afternoon refactoring the login system.”
“After the initial launch, the developers prioritised refactoring the legacy code to ensure the platform could handle more users.”
“While refactoring does not add new features to a software product, it is essential for reducing technical debt and preventing the codebase from becoming too fragile to modify.”
Examples
simple
“The team spent the afternoon refactoring the login system.”
contextual
“After the initial launch, the developers prioritised refactoring the legacy code to ensure the platform could handle more users.”
complex
“While refactoring does not add new features to a software product, it is essential for reducing technical debt and preventing the codebase from becoming too fragile to modify.”
Usage
Often used as an uncountable noun for the general process or a countable noun for a specific instance of the task.
Etymology
Formed from the prefix re-, meaning again, and the verb factor, in the mathematical sense of decomposing an expression into a product of simpler components. The term emerged from the Smalltalk programming community in the 1980s and was later formalised by William Opdyke and Martin Fowler.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Synonyms
Domain
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/refactoring