Meaning & use
procedure
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Meanings
nouncountable or uncountable
The correct or official way of doing something, made up of a fixed series of actions taken one after another.
Grammar: Countable for a specific method (a safe procedure) and uncountable for the general way things are done (follow procedure).
Patterns
- follow a procedure
- the procedure for doing something
- standard procedure
The procedure for returning a faulty item is explained on the receipt.
Staff must follow the safety procedure whenever the alarm sounds.
It is standard procedure to check every passenger's ticket before boarding.
nouncountablemedical
A medical treatment or small operation carried out on a patient.
Grammar: Usually describes something done by a doctor: a routine procedure, a surgical procedure.
Patterns
- undergo a procedure
- a procedure on something
The dentist said the procedure would take about twenty minutes.
He went home the same day after the minor procedure.
Doctors explained the risks of the procedure before she signed the form.
nouncountablecomputing
A named block of program code that carries out a specific task and can be run whenever it is needed.
Grammar: Used in programming: call a procedure, write a procedure.
Patterns
- call a procedure
- a stored procedure
The programmer wrote a procedure to sort the customer list.
A stored procedure runs inside the database rather than in the app.
The main program calls this procedure each time a user logs in.
Word forms
| plural | procedures |
|---|
Common combinations
- follow a procedure
- Please follow the procedure exactly or the form will be rejected.
- standard procedure
- Wearing gloves is standard procedure in this lab.
- surgical procedure
- The surgical procedure was performed under local anesthetic.
- legal procedure
- Legal procedure requires both sides to receive the documents.
- emergency procedure
- Every flight begins with a reminder of the emergency procedures.
- complaints procedure
- The company's complaints procedure is posted on its website.
Synonyms and how they differ
- process
- Process stresses a series of changes happening over time, while procedure stresses the correct, planned steps people choose to follow.
- method
- Method is the way you personally approach a task, while procedure suggests an official or agreed routine.
- routine
- Routine is a habitual pattern you repeat, which may be informal, whereas a procedure is usually written down.
- protocol
- Protocol is stricter and often applies to formal, medical or technical settings with set rules of conduct.
Opposites
Word family
- procedural adjective
- relating to the correct steps or rules of doing something
- proceed verb
- to go forward or continue
- proceedings noun
- formal events or legal action
- procedurally adverb
- in terms of correct steps or rules
Commonly confused: procedure or process? procedure or proceeds?
procedure vs process
A process is a series of events or changes, while a procedure is a set of steps people deliberately follow.
procedure vs proceeds
Proceeds (with stress on the first syllable) means money gained from an event, which is unrelated to procedure.
Practice
The nurse explained the ____ for cleaning the wound, step by step.
Choose one answer.
Procedure is the set of steps to follow. Proceeds means money raised, and precedent means an earlier example, so neither fits.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “procedure”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.