Noun

(uncountable) A way or means of approaching or entering; an entrance; a passage.

* All access was thronged. - Milton

(uncountable) The act of approaching or entering; an advance.

(uncountable) The right or ability of approaching or entering; admittance; admission; accessibility.

(uncountable) The quality of being easy to approach or enter.

* c. 1600 , (William Shakespeare), Act 2 Scene 1

I did repel his fetters, and denied His access to me. - Shakespeare, Hamlet, II-i

* {{quote-news, year=2011

, date=September 20 , author=Graeme Paton , title=University access plan 'will fail', says Russell Group , work=Telegraph citation , page= , passage=Coalition plans to widen access to university will fail to get to the 'root cause' of the problem, according to the Russell Group.}}

(uncountable) Admission to sexual intercourse.

* 1760s , (William Blackstone),

During coverture, access of the husband shall be presumed, unless the contrary be shown.

(countable) An increase by addition; accession; as, an access of territory.

* I, from the influence of thy looks, receive access in every virtue. - Milton

(countable) An onset, attack, or fit of disease; an ague fit.

* The first access looked like an apoplexy. - Burnet

(countable) An outburst of an emotion; a paroxysm; a fit of passion; as, an access of fury.

* 1946 , Arnold J. Toynbee, A Study of History (Abridgement of Volumes I-VI by D.C. Somervell)

It appears that, about the middle of the fourth century of the Christian Era, the Germans in the Roman service started the new practice of retaining their native names; and this change of etiquette, which seems to have been abrupt, points to a sudden access of self-confidence and self-assurance in the souls of the barbarian personnel which had previously been content to 'go Roman' without reservations.

Usage note: sometimes confused with excess

(uncountable, legal) The right of a non-custodial parent to visit their child.

(uncountable, computing) The process of locating data in memory.

(uncountable, Internet) Connection to or communication with a computer program or to the Internet.

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.