Meaning & use
in-process
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Meaning
adjectivebefore a nountechnical
Happening or existing during the course of a production or work procedure, before the final result is finished.
Grammar: Comes before the noun: in-process inspection, not an inspection that is in-process.
Patterns
- in-process inspection
- in-process materials
The factory performs in-process checks at every stage of assembly.
In-process inventory includes parts that are not yet finished products.
An in-process review caught the error before the batch was shipped.
Common combinations
- in-process inspection
- In-process inspection saves money by finding faults early.
- in-process testing
- The lab runs in-process testing on every sample.
- in-process inventory
- Their in-process inventory has grown this quarter.
- in-process control
- Strong in-process control keeps quality steady.
- in-process work
- Please do not move the in-process work from the bench.
Synonyms and how they differ
- ongoing
- Ongoing means continuing over time and has no link to production stages, while in-process points to unfinished work in a pipeline.
- interim
- Interim describes something temporary between two states, whereas in-process describes something part-way through a procedure.
- work-in-progress
- Work-in-progress is the more general phrase and is also common in offices and creative work.
Opposites
Word family
- process noun
- a series of steps leading to a result
- process verb
- to deal with or treat something through steps
- processing noun
- the act of handling or treating something
- processor noun
- a machine or person that processes
Commonly confused: in-process or in progress?
in-process vs in progress
In progress is the everyday phrase for something under way, as in work is in progress. In-process is narrower technical language for manufacturing and quality control.
Practice
Which sentence uses in-process correctly?
Choose one answer.
In-process is an adjective placed before a noun and refers to unfinished production work. The other sentences use it as a predicate, a feeling or a verb, which it cannot be.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “in-process”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.