Skip to main content
bean

bean

1 8.1
A piece of a computer program that other parts can use
  • noun
  • /biːn/
  • Specialized
: 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

39 1.0

A long green pod you cook and eat as a side

22 1.0

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

16 1.0

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

14 2.5

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

13 1.3

A small shiny black bean used in cooking

bean counter
  • Offensive
13 7.4

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

11 2.7

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

7 2.3

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

7 1.1

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

5 3.1

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

5 1.4

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

5 1.8

A young thin shoot from a bean eaten as a vegetable

4 2.3

A dried seed from the cacao tree used to make chocolate

4 2.4

A plant with seeds used to make food, oil, and animal feed

4 2.0

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

3 2.8

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

2 3.4

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

string bean
  • Slang
2 6.4

A very tall thin person that people call as a joke

1 7.3

A seed that moves because a baby moth lives inside it

1 7.4

A poisonous seed from a plant that people turn into oil

1 2.1

A long thin green vegetable that people eat cooked or raw

1 1.5

A small white dried bean used in soups and baked beans

1 3.0

A young green bean eaten before it dries or hardens

1 2.0

A plant that makes large flat beans people cook and eat

1 2.7

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

1 6.9

A person who eats mostly plants and simple foods without meat

1 3.8

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

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

1 2.9

The dried seed of the tree that makes cocoa and chocolate

1 3.7

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

1 5.2

A bean you take from its pod before cooking, usually soft and not fully ripe

1 3.1

A yellow bean with edible pods eaten as a vegetable

1 1.1

A small white seed that people cook and eat

1 1.4

A plant that produces beans you can eat

1 2.5

A small white seed that is dried and cooked to eat

1 2.2

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

1 3.3

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

1 5.6

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

human bean
  • Baby Talk
1 9.5

A playful name adults use for children

mash bean
  • Indian
1 5.4

A small green bean from the mung plant that people eat

bean beetle
  • Specialized
1 7.4

A small beetle that eats bean leaves and damages crops

1 5.6

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

1 8.7

An edible root that looks like a nut and was an important food for some Native American people

Bean Town
  • Informal
1 7.5

A nickname for Boston, the capital of Massachusetts

1 6.6

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

A small insect that eats the leaves of bean plants and often damages bean crops

tonka bean
  • Specialized
1 9.7

A fragrant black seed from a South American tree that gives perfumes and food a warm, sweet smell

hyacinth bean
  • Indian
1 7.6

A climbing plant with purple flowers and pods that hold edible seeds

1 5.8

A bean plant grown for the seeds that people eat, picked when ripe but not dry

1 1.1

A plant that grows beans people cook and eat

A climbing plant with red flowers and long edible pods

1 1.6

A long thin vegetable with yellow pods that you eat

1 7.9

A climbing plant grown for its large edible roots eaten raw or cooked

1 7.2

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

1 2.4

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

winged bean
  • Indian
1 6.9

A tropical climbing plant with edible pods that have four raised edges and thick edible roots

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

1 9.9

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

1 9.3

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

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

1 2.9

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

A green bean with long flat pods grown for its good taste

wonder bean
  • Specialized
1 8.6

A bushy tropical plant grown for animal feed with long pods of white seeds

1 5.0

A small black bean often dried and used in cooking

1 4.2

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

A long green bean with very long pods used as a vegetable

screw bean
  • Specialized
1 9.8

A dry-land shrub or small tree with spiral seed pods from the US Southwest and Mexico

1 7.5

A North American vine with sweet-smelling flowers and edible roots used for food

1 8.5

A climbing plant from the southwestern United States and Mexico that makes small edible beans

1 4.7

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

A plant that grows pods with large flat beans people eat

1 7.7

A long pod from the carob tree with sweet pulp used like chocolate and as animal feed

mescal bean
  • Specialized
1 9.9

A shrub or small tree with blue flowers and red seeds that are poisonous to people and animals

How Reusable

to service
111 3.4
component
448 3.4
module
100 3.7
bean
  • Specialized
1 8.1
function
  • Specialized
310 4.9
script
  • Specialized
45 3.6
snippet
39 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.