codec
noun
codec is spelled C-O-D-E-C: 5 letters. It appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 43,187th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, codec means “A device or program capable of performing transformations on a data stream or signal” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of codec is codecs.
How many letters and syllables are in codec?
| Letters | 5: C-O-D-E-C |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 2 million words; the 43,187th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is codec?
Codec appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 43,187th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce codec?
- UK
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-codec.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of codec
- codecs plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does codec mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 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
A media coding format.
H.264 and AV1 are examples of video codecs.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Codec in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense A device or program capable of performing transformations on a data stream or si:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does codec come from?
Syllabic abbreviation of coder decoder, probably in imitation of how modem was formed.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).