codec

Plural: codecs

Noun

• A device or program that encodes and/or decodes a data stream.
• A device or program capable of performing transformations on a data stream or signal.
• A media coding format.

Examples

• Audio and video codecs are important in making multimedia files small enough to distribute and simple to play back.
• H.264 and AV1 are examples of video codecs.
• The CODEC on his computer struggled to process the fast-paced commentary of the online Scrabble tournament.