process
Java
An individual thread-of-control to which an execution timeslice is allocated by an operating system.
A virtual address space containing one or more threads.
Patent
A method of making something, a process of operating something or a process of using something. Under U.S. law, one of the statutory classes of inventions. MPEP 2106, 35 U.S.C. 101.
Perl
An instance of a running program. Under multitasking systems like Unix, two or more separate processes could be running the same program independently at the same time--in fact, the fork function is designed to bring about this happy state of affairs. Under other operating systems, processes are sometimes called "threads", "tasks", or "jobs", often with slight nuances in meaning.
Telecommunications
1. An address space and one or more threads of control that execute within that address space, and their required system resources [POSIX.0]. 2. A program in execution. It is completely characterized by a single current execution point (represented by the machine state) and address space [TCSEC].