Okuzeka
Software Engineering vocabulary · Programming Concepts

Codebase

Meaning in software engineering, with examples

/ˈkoʊdbeɪs/nounCore term

In software engineering, codebase means: All the source code that makes up a project or product, seen as one whole, including its structure, style and history.

In Turkish: kod tabanı, kaynak kod

How it is used

Developers describe a codebase as large, old, clean, messy or well-tested. New team members spend their first weeks getting to know the codebase, and changes may need to be made 'across the codebase'.

Example sentences

  1. The codebase is about ten years old, so some parts still use jQuery.

  2. Take your first week to explore the codebase and ask questions.

Common collocations

  • large codebase
  • legacy codebase
  • explore the codebase
  • across the codebase
  • repositoryA storage place for a project's code and its full history of changes, usually managed with Git and often hosted online.
  • legacy codeOld code that is still in use, often written by people who have left, with little documentation or few tests, so it feels risky to change.
  • technical debtThe future cost of shortcuts taken in code today: quick solutions that save time now but make later changes slower and riskier.
  • refactorTo improve the structure of existing code, making it cleaner or easier to change, without changing what it does for the user.

More terms: Programming Concepts

Practise with graded reading

Reading at the right level is the fastest way to make new words stick. Pick free English books by level: