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bean

bean

25 8.1
A piece of a computer program that other parts can use
  • noun
  • /biːn/
  • Specialized
translation icon : bean (componente de software)

Examples

  • I'm gonna buy ten million cans of baked beans."

  • Dinner: either turkey burger or salmon with a side of black beans and a vegetable.

    Blog text (13)
  • Actually, business had been slower than usual, and we'd been dining on nothing but beans for a month.

    Fiction book (1993)
  • The cooked soymilk is formed into bean curd, much like making cottage cheese from milk.

    Academic text (2002)
  • In 1966, Alfred Peet began selling roasted whole-bean coffee for home sale in Berkeley, California.

    Academic text (2018)
  • A Java bean is a reusable software component that follows specific design patterns.

  • Developers use an Enterprise Java bean to manage business logic in their applications.

  • The Spring framework simplifies the creation of beans for use in web applications.

Compounds

28 1.0

A long green pod you cook and eat as a side

15 1.0

A small bean-shaped candy with a soft sweet center and a hard sugar shell

14 1.3

A small shiny black bean used in cooking

12 1.0

A small seed from a tree that people roast and grind to make coffee

bean counter
  • Offensive
9 7.4

A person who pays too much attention to small money details and misses the big picture

9 2.5

A flat pale green or white bean that people cook and eat

7 2.7

A long green bean with a tough string along its pod you remove before eating

6 2.3

A long narrow pod that contains tiny black seeds people use to flavor food

5 3.1

A large flat seed from the broad bean plant that people cook and eat

5 1.1

A creamy spread of cooked beans and spices for eating with chips

4 2.3

A dried seed from the cacao tree used to make chocolate

4 1.1

A small white seed that people cook and eat

4 1.8

A young thin shoot from a bean eaten as a vegetable

3 2.0

A large red seed shaped like a kidney that people cook and eat or the plant that grows it

3 1.4

A brown bean with spots often dried and used in Mexican cooking

2 3.4

A small green bean from Asia that people cook or grow into sprouts

1 2.8

A soft white food made from soy milk that people use like meat in Asian cooking

green bean
  • Indian
1 1.0

A small round seed used in Asian cooking, often dried or soaked

1 1.5

A small white dried bean used in soups and baked beans

1 2.0

A plant that makes large flat beans people cook and eat

1 7.3

A seed that moves because a baby moth lives inside it

1 2.9

The dried seed of the tree that makes cocoa and chocolate

1 7.4

A poisonous seed from a plant that people turn into oil

1 3.0

A young green bean eaten before it dries or hardens

1 2.7

A tender green bean you eat young that breaks easily and has no strings

string bean
  • Slang
1 6.4

A very tall thin person that people call as a joke

1 1.4

A plant that produces beans you can eat

1 6.9

A person who eats mostly plants and simple foods without meat

1 3.3

A low-growing bean plant that forms a compact shape and does not need support

1 2.1

A long thin green vegetable that people eat cooked or raw

A seed from a Mexican shrub that jumps when a baby moth moves inside

1 3.7

A climbing plant with long green pods and red flowers grown for food

1 3.8

A climbing bean plant that wraps around supports like poles or trellises

1 3.1

A yellow bean with edible pods eaten as a vegetable

9.1

A climbing plant with purple flowers and long hairy pods used to improve soil and feed animals

Benghal bean
  • Archaic
9.1

A woody climbing plant with purple flowers and hairy pods that farmers grow to feed animals and improve soil

bean mouth
  • Offensive
9.9

A person who talks too much and tells other people's secrets

A flat crispy tortilla with mashed beans and toppings like cheese and lettuce

Bean Town
  • Informal
7.5

A nickname for Boston, the capital of Massachusetts

6.6

A tree that has long seed pods that look like beans and showy flowers

A shrub with leaves in three parts, yellow flowers, and curving seed pods that smells bad when crushed

A small beetle whose young live in and eat beans and cause damage

bean-caper family
  • Specialized
9.9

A group of small trees, shrubs, and herbs that grow in hot, dry, salty places and are sometimes poisonous

bean aphid
  • Specialized
7.2

A small black insect that eats the sap of beans and other crops

bean beetle
  • Specialized
7.4

A small beetle that eats bean leaves and damages crops

bean blight
  • Specialized
6.8

A plant disease that makes bean leaves spot, wilt, or die

A small bush whose pickled flower buds are used in cooking

A garden plant grown for its large flat beans that people or animals eat

2.2

An upright plant grown for its large flat edible seeds and food for animals

2.4

A large flat edible seed eaten as a vegetable and often called a fava bean

A bush that grows small flat beans you can eat, often served as a vegetable

9.9

A dark brown seed from a West African plant that is poisonous and used in traditional medicine and rituals

A tropical African climbing plant that makes beans used in medicine and once used as a poison

A long dark brown pod from a carob tree with a sweet soft inside used like chocolate

An evergreen tree that grows in Mediterranean countries and makes sweet pods eaten like chocolate

A large tropical shrub with big hand-shaped leaves and spiny seed pods that give seeds used to make castor oil

A small flat green bean like a lima bean used for food

cluster bean
  • Indian
7.8

A plant grown in dry places for edible pods and seeds used to make guar gum

A climbing or bushy vegetable that produces edible beans

A plant that grows beans people cook and eat

9.5

A shrub or small tree with divided leaves, blue flower spikes and red seeds, some poisonous to farm animals

A small tree with bright red flowers and red seeds with black spots

A tropical bean plant with red flowers that grows black beans with white spots you can eat

A seed from plants like peas or lentils that you can eat

Egyptian bean
  • Indian
8.4

A climbing plant with purple flowers and dark red pods that have edible seeds and are used as a vegetable

3.0

A large flat bean that people cook and eat, also called fava

A bean plant with long pods that people cook and eat

A small reddish-brown bean used in Chinese and Japanese cooking, often in sweet dishes

A small red-brown bean from East Asia often used in Japanese and Chinese sweets and flour

algarroba bean
  • Specialized
9.9

A long pod with sweet pulp and small beans people and animals eat, often used like chocolate

A long thin bean with pods you can eat, often used in Asian cooking

4.2

A plant from Europe that produces large flat seeds eaten by people and fed to animals

5.6

A tall plant grown for large flat seeds eaten by people and fed to animals

How Reusable

to service
43 3.4
component
447 3.4
module
101 3.7
bean
  • Specialized
25 8.1
function
  • Specialized
343 4.9
script
  • Specialized
70 3.6
snippet
36 4.8

Surface Forms

bean singular
beans plural

Etymology

Bean in computing is a small, reusable part of a program; programmers borrowed the word because a bean is a small seed that can grow, and these small parts act like building pieces that help a program work.