coding

American  

[koh-ding] / ˈkoʊ dɪŋ /

noun

1. Computers. the act or process of writing code, or the instructions for a program or piece of software.

   There’s a bit of coding left to do, and then we’ll be ready to beta-test.

   He likes to do the software design, but leaves the actual coding to others.

2. the act or process of expressing a message in words, images, sounds, or any other set of symbols or signs; encoding.

   The secret coding of ship messages hindered rescue efforts during the war.

   In advertising, the coding of your message can make or break your marketing strategy.

3. the act or process of categorizing or identifying a set of things by assigning a code to them.

   Using color coding along with the bin labels will increase the sorting productivity and accuracy of mail clerks.

4. Statistics. the act of transforming a random variable into one that is more convenient for certain types of analysis or for the removal of invalid data.

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Etymology

Origin of coding

First recorded in 1865–70 originally used for telegraphy; code + -ing ¹

Example Sentences

Anthropic is the maker of popular chatbot Claude and the viral coding app, Claude Code.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 16, 2026

In the crowded arena of AI coding, another startup has raised its flag.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 16, 2026

Anthropic counts more than 300,000 enterprise customers, and its coding tool for developers—Claude Code—exceeded $2.5 billion in run-rate revenue, more than double since the beginning of the year.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 16, 2026

As part of the deal announced Tuesday, Google Cloud users will be able to access GitLab’s Duo Agent Platform with Google’s Vertex AI models, which should make coding tasks faster.

From Barron's • Apr. 15, 2026

So we developed a system for coding our underground messages in terms of watches.

From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom