MEANING
To arrange rules, practices, or principles into an explicit organized system.
Use it for
legal consolidation; institutional standards; making tacit rules explicitDistinguish informal practice from an organized written framework.
Words that belong together
- codify rules
- codify customary law
- codify best practice
On the page
The handbook codifies procedures that staff previously learned informally.
Parliament codified several principles already recognized by the courts.
Attempts to codify artistic taste often suppress useful disagreement.
Nearby words
Related words
Word forms
- Base
- codify / codifies
- Past tense
- codified
- Past participle
- codified
- Present participle
- codifying
Full tense & aspect guide
- Present
- codify / codifies
- Present continuous
- am/is/are codifying
- Present perfect
- have/has codified
- Present perfect continuous
- have/has been codifying
- Past
- codified
- Past continuous
- was/were codifying
- Past perfect
- had codified
- Past perfect continuous
- had been codifying
- Future
- will codify / codifies
- Future continuous
- will be codifying
- Future perfect
- will have codified
- Future perfect continuous
- will have been codifying
Choose the auxiliary that agrees with your subject. These are constructions of one word, not separate entries.
Usage notes
Primary category: academic. Formal; stronger than write down because it suggests systematic ordering. Codification may preserve existing practice rather than invent new rules. Verb inflections [base, third-person singular, past, past participle, -ing]: codify, codifies, codified, codified, codifying. Derived family (not inflections): codification.
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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