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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

protocol.

The minutes, or official record, of a negotiation or transaction; especially a document drawn up officially which forms the legal basis for subsequent agreements based on it.

8 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈpɹəʊtəˌkɒl/Received-Pronunciation/ˈpɹoʊtəˌkɑl/General-American/ˈpɹoʊtəˌkɔl/General-American/ˈpɹoʊtəˌkoʊl/General-American
  1. The minutes, or official record, of a negotiation or transaction; especially a document drawn up officially which forms the legal basis for subsequent agreements based on it.

    countable · historical · uncountable
  2. An official record of a diplomatic meeting or negotiation; later specifically, a draft document setting out agreements to be signed into force by a subsequent formal treaty.

    archaic · countable · uncountable
  3. An amendment to an official treaty.

    countable · uncountable
  4. The first leaf of a roll of papyrus, or the official mark typically found on such a page.

    countable · uncountable
  5. The official formulas which appeared at the beginning or end of certain official documents such as charters, papal bulls etc.

    countable · uncountable
  6. The original notes of observations made during an experiment.

    countable · uncountable
  7. The precise method for carrying out or reproducing a given experiment.

    countable · uncountable
  8. The official rules and guidelines for heads of state and other dignitaries, governing accepted behaviour in relations with other diplomatic representatives or over affairs of state.

    countable · uncountable
  9. An accepted code of conduct; acceptable behaviour in a given situation or group.

    broadly · countable · uncountable
  10. A set of formal rules describing how to transmit or exchange data, especially across a network.

    countable · uncountable
  11. The set of instructions allowing a licensed medical professional to start, modify, or stop a medical or patient care order.

    countable · uncountable
  12. The introduction of a liturgical preface, immediately following the Sursum corda dialogue.

    countable · uncountable
  13. In some programming languages, a data type declaring a set of members that must be implemented by a class or other data type.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Middle French protocolle, protocole (“document, record”), from Late Latin protocollum (“the first sheet of a volume (on which contents and errata were written)”), from Byzantine Greek πρωτόκολλον (prōtókollon, “first sheet glued onto a manuscript”), from πρῶτος (prôtos, “first”) + κόλλα (kólla, “glue”).

verb/ˈpɹəʊtəˌkɒl/Received-Pronunciation/ˈpɹoʊtəˌkɑl/General-American/ˈpɹoʊtəˌkɔl/General-American/ˈpɹoʊtəˌkoʊl/General-American
  1. To make a protocol of.

    obsolete · transitive
  2. To make or write protocols, or first drafts; to issue protocols.

    intransitive · obsolete
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Middle French protocolle, protocole (“document, record”), from Late Latin protocollum (“the first sheet of a volume (on which contents and errata were written)”), from Byzantine Greek πρωτόκολλον (prōtókollon, “first sheet glued onto a manuscript”), from πρῶτος (prôtos, “first”) + κόλλα (kólla, “glue”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.