encoded

comparative more encoded · superlative most encoded

1. Having a meaning that is different from a simple straightforward interpretation; acting as code for another meaning.

   Curiously, background sound can be quite complex without becoming confusing, because it comprises elements that vary from very encoded to highly embodied.

   2007, Joseph D Anderson, Barbara Fisher Anderson, Moving Image Theory: Ecological Considerations, page 74

   3 more examples

   The data discussed above have considerable implications for the Liberman et al. (1967) theory of encodednes—consonants being very encoded and vowels being less encoded and therefore perceived continuously whereas consonants are perceived categorically.

   2013, G. Underwood, Attention and Memory, page 48

   While sitting in the hospital, the captain asked me since I was the Ordnance Officer what should we do, and I told him we needed to report this immediaqtely, but we needed to report it in such a way that it didn't sound like it was as bad as it was. I crafted up a message and sent it out that night, and the message was very encoded as we wrote it.

   2021, Allen F Maxwell, The System is Unforgiving: Play by the Rules and Win

   The beginning of relative decline of New York City, financially and culturally, was also the point at which the artistic production turned from a very encoded, private, “talking to ourselves," abstract minimalism, to a more broadly intelligible narrative, decorative, realistic form of language across the different arts.

   2022, Robert Wuthnow, Vocabularies of Public Life, page 179

1. participlepastsimple past and past participle of encode