Codec

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A device or program capable of performing transformations on a data stream or signal.

    "Audio and video codecs are important in making multimedia files small enough to distribute and simple to play back."

  2. 2
    A media coding format.

    "H.264 and AV1 are examples of video codecs."

Example

More examples

"The alliance emphasized the importance of a new codec—a computer program capable of compressing and decompressing digital data—that is free and flexible to use for both commercial and non-commercial content, including user-generated content, for individuals and organizations."

Etymology

Blend of coder + decoder, probably in imitation of how modem was formed.

Related phrases

data stream

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.