What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Process vs Event - What's the difference?

process | event |

In computing terms the difference between process and event

is that process is a task or program that is or was executing while event is a possible action that the user can perform that is monitored by an application or the operating system (event listener). When an event occurs an event handler is called which performs a specific task.

As nouns the difference between process and event

is that process is a series of events to produce a result, especially as contrasted to product while event is an occurrence; something that happens.

As a verb process

is to perform a particular process.

process

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl)

Noun

(es)
  • A series of events to produce a result, especially as contrasted to product.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011, date=September 27, author=Alistair Magowan, work=BBC Sport
  • , title= Bayern Munich 2-0 Man City , passage=But they came up against an impressive force in Bayern, who extended their run to 10 wins on the trot, having scored 28 goals in the process and conceding none.}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=68, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= T time , passage=Yet in “Through a Latte, Darkly”, a new study of how Starbucks has largely avoided paying tax in Britain, Edward Kleinbard […] shows that current tax rules make it easy for all sorts of firms to generate what he calls “stateless income”: […]. In Starbucks’s case, the firm has in effect turned the process of making an expensive cup of coffee into intellectual property.}}
    This product of last month's quality standards committee is quite good, even though the process was flawed.
  • (legal) The act of serving a defendant with a summons or a writ.
  • (biology) An outgrowth of tissue or cell.
  • (anatomy) A structure that arises above a surface.
  • (computing) A task or program that is or was executing.
  • (manufacturing) A set of procedures used to produce a product, most commonly in the food and chemical industries.
  • * 1960', Mack Tyner, '''''Process''' Engineering Calculations: Material and Energy Balances'' - Ordinarily a '''process''' plant will use a steam boiler to supply its ' process heat requirements and to drive a steam-turbine generator.
  • * 1987', J. R. Richards, ''Principles of control system design'' in ''Modelling and control of fermentation '''process'''es'' - The words ''plant'' or '''''process''''' infer generally any dynamic system, be it primarily mechanical, electrical, or chemical ' process in nature, and may extend also to include social or economic systems.
  • A path of succession of states through which a system passes.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2012-01
  • , author=Robert L. Dorit , title=Rereading Darwin , volume=100, issue=1, page=23 , magazine= citation , passage=We live our lives in three dimensions for our threescore and ten allotted years. Yet every branch of contemporary science, from statistics to cosmology, alludes to processes that operate on scales outside of human experience: the millisecond and the nanometer, the eon and the light-year.}}
  • (lb) Successive physiological responses to keep or restore health.
  • Derived terms
    * due process * due process of law * due-process * process color, process colour * process hot water * process server * process upset

    Verb

    (es)
  • To perform a particular process.
  • We have processed the data using our proven techniques, and have come to the following conclusions.
  • To treat with a substance
  • To think an information over, or a concept, in order to assimilate it, and perhaps accept it as valid.
  • Etymology 2

    Verb

    (es)
  • (mostly British) To walk in a procession.
  • Anagrams

    * ----

    event

    English

    (wikipedia event)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An occurrence; something that happens.
  • * Macaulay
  • the events of his early years
  • An end result; an outcome (now chiefly in phrases).
  • *, II.3.3:
  • hard beginnings have many times prosperous events  […].
  • * 1707 , , by Eccles and Congrieve; scene 8
  • Of my ill boding Dream / Behold the dire Event .
  • * Young
  • dark doubts between the promise and event
    In the event , he turned out to have what I needed anyway.
  • (physics) A point in spacetime having three spatial coordinates and one temporal coordinate.
  • (computing) A possible action that the user can perform that is monitored by an application or the operating system (event listener). When an event occurs an event handler is called which performs a specific task.
  • (probability theory) A set of some of the possible outcomes; a subset of the sample space.
  • If X is a random variable representing the toss of a six-sided die, then its sample space could be denoted as {1,2,3,4,5,6}. Examples of events could be: X = 1, X = 2, X \ge 5, X \not = 4, and X \isin \{1,3,5\}.
  • (obsolete) An affair in hand; business; enterprise.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Leave we him to his events .
  • (lb) An episode of severe health conditions.
  • Derived terms

    * blessed event * credit event * current events * doomsday event * eventful * event horizon * eventless * eventual * in the event * K-T extinction event * media event * quick time event * risk event * sentinel event * social event * speciation event * to be wise after the event