codice

Codice is an Italian noun meaning code, rulebook, or manual. It is used across legal, administrative, and general contexts. In Italy and other Italian-speaking regions, codice appears in the titles of major statutory collections, such as Codice Civile (Civil Code) and Codice Penale (Penal Code), as well as in references to procedural guides and regulatory compilations.

In law, codes are systematic collections of statutes and regulations that govern a jurisdiction. They organize rules by topic and provide a unified framework for legal interpretation and enforcement. Codes may be codified at national, regional, or municipal levels and can cover civil, criminal, commercial, or administrative law.

In computing and information technology, codice commonly refers to code or encoded data. Phrases such as codice sorgente (source code) describe the instructions that constitute software. The term also appears in contexts involving cryptography, where a codice may denote a cipher or encoded message.

Historically, the Italian term also relates to manuscripts. The word codice can refer to a codex, a bound book of pages that replaced scrolls in many parts of the ancient world. In manuscript catalogs, a collection of documents may be described as codici, highlighting a historical or archival sense of the term.

In biology and related fields, the phrase codice genetico denotes the genetic code—the set of rules by which information encoded in genetic material is translated into proteins.

Because codice has multiple meanings across disciplines, the intended sense is determined by context. The term remains a common reference in law, technology, manuscript culture, and biology.