process

process, procedure, proceeding denote the series of actions, operations, or motions involved in the accomplishment of an end.

Process is particularly appropriate when progress from a definite beginning to a definite end is implied and something is thereby made, produced, or changed from one thing into another; the term usually suggests a division of the entire sequence of events into steps or stages

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describe the process of making sugar from sugar- cane

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the process of digestion

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perfect knowledge is no mere intellectual process— Inge

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I have always liked the process of commuting; every phase of the little journey is a pleasure to me— Dahl

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The idiomatic phrase "in process" means in the course of being made, produced, built, constructed, evolved, or attained

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for men in practical life perfection is something far off and still in process of achievement— James

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Procedure stresses the method followed or the routine to be followed, whether in carrying through an industrial, a chemical, a mental, or other process, or in doing some specific thing (as conducting a meeting, a trial, a conference, or a business, or performing an experiment or an operation, or prosecuting an investigation or a search)

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study the rudiments of parliamentary procedure

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knows laboratory procedure thoroughly

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correct legal procedure

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you know what a stickler she is for procedure—"red tape" I called it to her— Terry Southern

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this Byzantine court, which is trying to adapt its procedure to the ideals of its Western education— Edmund Wilson

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Proceeding, a much less definite term than the others of this group, applies not only to the sequence of events, actions, or operations directed toward the attainment of an end, but also to any one of such events, acts, or operations. The term throws more stress on the individual or collective items than on their closely knit relation to each other or on the final end which they have in view, and often the term means little more than an instance, sometimes a course, of conduct or behavior

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the law... stepped in to prevent a proceeding which it regarded as petty treason to the commonwealth— Froude

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record the proceedings of a meeting of a society

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the precise habits, the incredible proceedings of human insects— L. P. Smith

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legislative proceedings frequently veer off into areas of somewhat less than momentous significance— Armbrister

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Analogous words: progress, advance (see under ADVANCE vb): conducting or conduct, management, controlling or control, direction (see corresponding verbs at CONDUCT): performance, execution, accomplishment, fulfillment (see corresponding verbs at PERFORM)