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procedure

A procedure is a tried and true process or method used to accomplish a particular task. Using sharp metal picks, dentists scrape the plaque from their patients’ teeth. While effective, it’s a procedure most people despise.

The word procedure is often used in the fields of medicine and law, sometimes in combination with other words, as in "surgical procedure" or "legal procedure." A "Parliamentary procedure" is the set of rules that you follow at a meeting of a club or some other organization (not necessarily a House of Parliament). Procedure is also related to the word procedural, which is sometimes used a term for a genre of television drama in which the plot revolves around a technical procedure, like the solving of a police case.

PRIMARY MEANINGS OF: procedure

1	n	a particular course of action intended to achieve a result
2	n	a set sequence of steps, part of larger computer program

FULL DEFINITIONS OF: procedure

n a particular course of action intended to achieve a result

“the procedure of obtaining a driver's license”

Synonyms:: process

Types:: show 43 types...; hide 43 types...; Bertillon system
a system or procedure for identifying persons; fingerprinting
the procedure of taking inked impressions of a person's fingerprints for the purpose of identification; genetic fingerprinting, genetic profiling
the procedure of analyzing the DNA in samples of a person's body tissue or body fluid for the purpose of identification; diagnostic procedure, diagnostic technique
a procedure followed in making a medical diagnosis; emergency procedure
(medicine) a procedure adopted to meet an emergency (especially a medical emergency); experimental procedure
the specific techniques used in conducting a particular experiment; calculation, computation, computing
the procedure of calculating; determining something by mathematical or logical methods; medical procedure
a procedure employed by medical or dental practitioners; chromosome mapping, mapping
(genetics) the process of locating genes on a chromosome; operating procedure
a procedure for operating something or for dealing with a given situation; stiffening
the act of becoming stiff; indirection
indirect procedure or action; rigamarole, rigmarole
a long and complicated and confusing procedure; modus operandi, routine
an unvarying or habitual method or procedure; condition, experimental condition
the procedure that is varied in order to estimate a variable's effect by comparison with a control condition; formula, rule
(mathematics) a standard procedure for solving a class of mathematical problems; prenatal diagnosis
any of the diagnostic procedures used to determine whether a fetus has a genetic abnormality; double-blind experiment, double-blind procedure, double-blind study
an experimental procedure in which neither the subjects of the experiment nor the persons administering the experiment know the critical aspects of the experiment; cardiac massage, heart massage
an emergency procedure that employs rhythmic compression of the heart (either through the chest wall or, during surgery, directly to the heart) in an attempt to maintain circulation during cardiac arrest; operation, surgery, surgical operation, surgical procedure, surgical process
a medical procedure involving an incision with instruments; performed to repair damage or arrest disease in a living body; artificial respiration
an emergency procedure whereby breathing is maintained artificially; cardiography, electrocardiography
diagnostic procedure consisting of recording the activity of the heart electronically with a cardiograph (and producing a cardiogram); echocardiography
a noninvasive diagnostic procedure that uses ultrasound to study to structure and motions of the heart; echoencephalography
a noninvasive diagnostic procedure that uses ultrasound to study the anatomy of the brain; CPR, cardiac resuscitation, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, kiss of life, mouth-to-mouth resuscitation
an emergency procedure consisting of external cardiac massage and artificial respiration; the first treatment for a person who has collapsed and has no pulse and has stopped breathing; attempts to restore circulation of the blood and prevent death or brain damage due to lack of oxygen; Heimlich maneuver, Heimlich manoeuvere
an emergency procedure to help someone who is choking because food is lodged in the trachea; transposition
(mathematics) the transfer of a quantity from one side of an equation to the other along with a change of sign; number crunching
performing complex and lengthy numerical calculations; mathematical operation, mathematical process, operation
(mathematics) calculation by mathematical methods; recalculation
the act of calculating again (usually to eliminate errors or to include additional data); auscultation
listening to sounds within the body (usually with a stethoscope); X-ray photography, roentgenography
radiography that uses X-rays to produce a roentgenogram; electromyography
diagnosis of neuromuscular disorders with the use of an electromyograph; mammography
a diagnostic procedure to detect breast tumors by the use of X rays; thermography
diagnostic technique using a thermograph to record the heat produced by different parts of the body; used to study blood flow and to detect tumors; dental procedure
a procedure employed by a dentist; SOP, standard operating procedure, standard procedure, standing operating procedure
a prescribed procedure to be followed routinely; rat race
an exhausting routine that leaves no time for relaxation; groove, rut
a settled and monotonous routine that is hard to escape; metarule
a rule that describes how other rules should be used (as in AI); algorithm, algorithmic program, algorithmic rule
a precise rule (or set of rules) specifying how to solve some problem; heuristic, heuristic program, heuristic rule
a commonsense rule (or set of rules) intended to increase the probability of solving some problem; recursion
(mathematics) an expression such that each term is generated by repeating a particular mathematical operation

Type of:: activity
any specific behavior

n a process or series of acts especially of a practical or mechanical nature involved in a particular form of work

Synonyms:: operation

Type of:: work
activity directed toward making or doing something

n a mode of conducting legal and parliamentary proceedings

Types:: bureaucratic procedure, red tape
needlessly time-consuming procedure; objection
(law) a procedure whereby a party to a suit says that a particular line of questioning or a particular witness or a piece of evidence or other matter is improper and should not be continued and asks the court to rule on its impropriety or illegality; recusation
(law) an objection grounded on the judge's relationship to one of the parties

Type of:: legal proceeding, proceeding, proceedings
(law) the institution of a sequence of steps by which legal judgments are invoked

n a set sequence of steps, part of larger computer program

Synonyms:: function, routine, subprogram, subroutine

Types:: show 12 types...; hide 12 types...; cataloged procedure
a set of control statements that have been placed in a library and can be retrieved by name; contingency procedure
an alternative to the normal procedure; triggered if an unusual but anticipated situation arises; library routine
a debugged routine that is maintained in a program library; random number generator
a routine designed to yield a random number; recursive routine
a routine that can call itself; reusable routine
a routine that can be loaded once and executed repeatedly; executive routine, supervisory routine
a routine that coordinates the operation of subroutines; tracing routine
a routine that provides a chronological record of the execution of a computer program; service routine, utility routine
a routine that can be used as needed; dump routine
a routine that writes from an internal store to some external medium; input routine
a routine that writes from an external source to an internal store; output routine
a routine that controls an output device

Type of:: computer software, package, software, software package, software program, software system
(computer science) written programs or procedures or rules and associated documentation pertaining to the operation of a computer system and that are stored in read/write memory

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