procede

Procédé is a French noun meaning a method, technique, or process by which something is achieved. In French, it refers to the specific steps, means, or apparatus used to produce a result. Common usages include un procédé chimique (a chemical process), un procédé industriel (an industrial process), and procédés photographiques (photographic processes). The plural is procédés, and the term is masculine, as in le procédé.

Etymology and form: procédé comes from Latin procedere, meaning to go forward, via Old French procedé. In modern French, accent marks are essential: the standard spelling is procédé, with the acute accents on the e vowels. The unaccented form proce­de or procede is not correct French and appears only as an anglicized or mis-spelled variant in other contexts.

English usage: In English, the standard terms are process or procedure. Procédé is not part of standard English orthography and is typically encountered only as a loanword in specialized or historical French contexts, sometimes appearing in titles or descriptions of particular techniques named in French. When translating, English writers usually render it as process or procedure.

See also: Process, Procedure, Method, Technique, Technology, French terminology.

Examples: Le procédé consiste à chauffer le mélange à une température donnée. The process consists of heating the mixture to a given temperature. Ce procédé est breveté. This process is patented.