process

noun pro·cess \ ˈprä-ˌses , ˈprō- , -səs \

Updated on: 5 Dec 2017

Definition of process

plural processes play \ˈprä-ˌse-səz, ˈprō-, -sə-, -ˌsēz\

1 a : progress, advance

in the process of time

b : something going on : proceeding

2 a (1) : a natural phenomenon marked by gradual changes that lead toward a particular result

the process of growth

(2) : a continuing natural or biological activity or function

such life processes as breathing

b : a series of actions or operations conducing to an end; especially : a continuous operation or treatment especially in manufacture

3 a : the whole course of proceedings in a legal action

b : the summons, mandate, or writ used by a court to compel the appearance of the defendant in a legal action or compliance with its orders

4 : a prominent or projecting part of an organism or organic structure

a bone process

a nerve cell process

5 : ⁶conk

See process defined for English-language learners

See process defined for kids

Examples of process in a Sentence

How does the election process work?
Learning a foreign language can be a long process.
We're remodeling our house. The whole process is expected to take a few months.
Breathing and the circulation of blood are life processes.
a bony process on the foot

Recent Examples of process from the Web

Plus, as our Albert Breer consistently points out, at Clemson Watson already had to go through the process of having opposing defenses adjust over an offseason and take parts of his game away.

— gary gramling, SI.com, "Reassessing the QB Market in a Garoppolo-49ers World, the Browns and the Worst of Both Worlds, Deshaun Watson and the World of the Future," 4 Nov. 2017
Nothing in this agreement shall be construed to violate the DNC's obligation of impartiality and neutrality through the Nominating process.

— jack moore, GQ, "Donna Brazile's DNC Revelations About Hillary Clinton Aren't Adding Up," 4 Nov. 2017
As part of the process to diagnose a concussion in the NFL, and many other sports, there are the Maddocks questions.

— david humphrey, star-telegram, "It’s not your name that counts. It’s knowing where you are," 3 Nov. 2017
Not having a mortgage was a big part of the process.

— jinnie lee, Vogue, "Lessons from Life on an Angora Bunny Farm," 3 Nov. 2017
Republican leaders want to force a House vote by Thanksgiving—which would be a far cry from the 1986 tax reform bill, which took two years to get through the legislative process.

— alan murray, Fortune, "A Big Win for Big Business — CEO Daily, Friday, 3rd November," 3 Nov. 2017
State officials and Louisiana members of Congress doubt that will make it through the budget process. . . . . . . .

— drew broach, NOLA.com, "Bill Cassidy balks at Trump administration's offshore oil revenue figure, seeks review," 31 Oct. 2017
Thankfully, the process is about to get a whole lot easier.

— cassie shortsleeve, Condé Nast Traveler, "U.S. Citizens Can Soon Apply for E-Visas to Brazil," 30 Oct. 2017
Groups of related features get built up hierarchically through a similar process.

— john timmer, Ars Technica, "Inspired by brain’s visual cortex, new AI utterly wrecks CAPTCHA security," 26 Oct. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'process.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Origin and Etymology of process

Middle English proces, from Anglo-French procés, from Latin processus, from procedere

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 14th century

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process Synonyms

Synonyms

course, operation, procedure, proceeding

Antonyms

recess, recession, regress, regression, retreat, retrogression

Related Words

drill, routine; fashion, form, manner, method, mode, style, system, technique, way; approach, arrangement, blueprint, design, formula, game plan, ground plan, layout, plan, plot, program, project, recipe, scheme, strategy; accomplishment, achievement, attainment, enterprise, performance, undertaking, work; activity, functioning, movement

Near Antonyms

backwash, ebb, reflux; retraction, return, reversal, reverse; about-face, turnabout, turnaround

process

verb

Definition of process

transitive verb

1 a : to proceed against by law : prosecute

b (1) : to take out a summons against

(2) : to serve a summons on

2 a : to subject to a special process or treatment (as in the course of manufacture or film development)

b (1) : to subject to or handle through an established usually routine set of procedures

process insurance claims

(2) : to integrate sensory information received so that an action or response is generated

the brain processes visual images relayed from the retina

(3) : to subject to examination or analysis

computers process data

c : to work (hair) into a conk

Recent Examples of process from the Web

Extradition requests are processed through the U.S. justice system and are not determined by the White House or other agencies.

— julia ainsley, NBC News, "Mueller Has Enough Evidence to Bring Charges in Flynn Investigation," 5 Nov. 2017
Roughly 200,000 claims for buybacks remain to be processed.

— neal e. boudette, New York Times, "Volkswagen Sales in U.S. Rebound After Diesel Scandal," 1 Nov. 2017
Trained on an vast library of games, the program processed the whole of human knowledge on the subject in ways no mere mortal could.

— eric limer, Popular Mechanics, "Alien Intelligence Is Already Lurking Among Us," 23 Oct. 2017
One avenue is to standardise systems such as the China International Payment System, which processes cross-border payments.

— The Economist, "The internationalisation of China’s currency has stalled," 14 Oct. 2017
With a killer on the loose and Jughead seeming to embrace the possibility of having an extended family beyond his father, who’s currently stuck in jail, that’s a lot for a girl to process!

— laura bradley, HWD, "Riverdale Season 2 Introduces a New Mystery—but Is It as Compelling as the First?," 11 Oct. 2017
While Daniels was being processed at the station, he apparently was not handcuffed.

— araceli cruz, Teen Vogue, "Texas Tech Freshman Charged With Murder of Campus Police Officer," 10 Oct. 2017
Glynn said the vehicle has been located but is still being processed as part of the police investigation.

— lynn horsley, kansascity, "KC mayor candidate’s wife robbed in Ward Parkway home," 7 Oct. 2017
There are federal-law processes for designating foreign and international terrorism because defending against foreign threats to national security is primarily a federal responsibility.

— andrew c. mccarthy, National Review, "‘Designating’ Antifa a Terrorist Organization Is a Bad Idea," 31 Aug. 2017

First Known Use of process

15th century

process

adjective

Definition of process

1 : treated or made by a special process especially when involving synthesis or artificial modification

2 : made by or used in a mechanical or photomechanical duplicating process

3 : of or involving illusory effects usually introduced during processing of the film

Recent Examples of process from the Web

Process garlic and shallots until finely chopped, then stir into tomato mixture.

— jill wendholt silva, kansascity, "Five easy (and, shhh, healthy) recipes for the Fourth," 3 July 2017
People process things differently and at different rates.

— richard asa, chicagotribune.com, "When your ex finds someone new," 31 Aug. 2017
Around 80% of people process language on the left, or the analytical, side of the brain, Dr. Pantelyat says, and everyone processes music on both sides of the brain.

— heidi mitchell, WSJ, "Does Listening to Music Improve Your Focus?," 26 July 2017

First Known Use of process

1888

process

verb pro·cess \ prə-ˈses \

Definition of process

intransitive verb

chiefly British

: to move in a procession

Recent Examples of process from the Web

To the public, news of Trump's Twitter outage was first met with confusion, with barely time to process the information before the account was restored.

— amy b wang, Washington Post, "The abridged history of Twitter’s 11 minutes without @realDonaldTrump," 3 Nov. 2017
Leadership qualities, intelligence with an ability to quickly process information are other essentials.

— blair kerkhoff, kansascity, "With Alex vs. Dak, Chiefs-Cowboys a big game for ‘Quarterback Whisperer’," 2 Nov. 2017
Transferring the suspect from New York would raise a host of thorny constitutional and legal issues, and Mr. Trump seemed to be speaking off the top of his head since federal prosecutors later moved to process the suspect in civilian courts.

— peter baker, New York Times, "Trump Declares Suspect ‘Should Get Death Penalty’," 1 Nov. 2017
Digital currencies such as bitcoin need a broad network of computers to process transactions.

— robert mcmillan, WSJ, "Hackers’ Latest Move: Using Your Computer to Mine Bitcoin," 27 Oct. 2017
The Besh Group, which was established in 2005, has never had a professional human resources department to process employee complaints.

— brett anderson, AL.com, "John Besh steps down from restaurant group after sexual harassment allegations," 23 Oct. 2017
To process all such potential claims by March 2019, when Britain is due to leave the EU, the Home Office would need to make roughly 3,600 decisions each day, up from about 650 at present, says the IFG.

— The Economist, "Ready or notThe Home Office: a crisis in waiting," 12 Oct. 2017
With a killer on the loose and Jughead seeming to embrace the possibility of having an extended family beyond his father, who’s currently stuck in jail, that’s a lot for a girl to process!

— laura bradley, vanityfair.com, "Riverdale Season 2 Introduces a New Mystery—but Is It as Compelling as the First?," 11 Oct. 2017
The equipment couldn't accommodate the large number of blood samples the lab needed to process each day, and some results for one of the lysosomal diseases were not reliable, records show.

— amy dickinson, chicagotribune.com, "How Illinois bureaucracy robbed parents of a chance to save their children from a deadly disease," 4 Oct. 2017

Origin and Etymology of process

back-formation from ¹procession

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1814

See Words from the same year

PROCESS Defined for English Language Learners

process

noun

Definition of process for English Language Learners

: a series of actions that produce something or that lead to a particular result
: a series of changes that happen naturally
medical : something that sticks out of something else

PROCESS Defined for Kids

process

noun pro·cess \ ˈprä-ˌses , ˈprō- \

Definition of process for Students

1 : a series of actions, motions, or operations leading to some result

the manufacturing process

2 : a series of changes that occur naturally

the growth process

process

verb

Definition of process for Students

processed; processing

1 : to change by a special treatment

The fruit is picked and processed for shipment.

2 : to take care of according to a routine

His job is to process insurance claims.

3 : to take in and organize for use

Computers process data.

Medical Dictionary

process

noun pro·cess \ ˈpräs-ˌes , ˈprōs- , -əs \

medical Definition of process

1 a : a natural progressively continuing operation or development marked by a series of gradual changes that succeed one another in a relatively fixed way and lead toward a particular result or end

the process of growth

the process of digestion

b : a natural continuing activity or function

such life processes as breathing and the circulation of the blood

2 : a prominent or projecting part of an organism or organic structure

a bone process

a nerve cell process

Law Dictionary

process

noun pro·cess \ ˈprä-ˌses, ˈprō- \

legal Definition of process

1 : a continuous operation, art, or method especially in manufacture

whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process…may obtain a patent therefor
—U.S. Code

2 a : procedure 1 — see also abuse of process, due process

b : a means (as a summons) used to compel a defendant to appear in court; broadly : a means by which a court acquires or exercises jurisdiction over a person or property — see also mesne process — compare notice, service

Note: In civil procedure, service of a summons on a defendant is considered constitutionally sufficient process, although usually a copy of the complaint must also be provided according to the local rule of procedure.

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