dead code — English Dictionary

Noun

1. Instructions that, when executed, have no effect on the running of the program.

   Usage

   • Uncountable

   Examples

   Much dead code elimination is actually done on intermediate representations of your code, which may contain unnecessary intermediate calculations[…]

2. A portion of source code that will never be executed as part of the running program.

   Usage

   • Uncountable

   Synonyms

   unreachable code

   Related words

   no-op

   Examples

   Many software projects contain much dead code in the form of deprecated functions.

   If the test data is exhaustive you can even locate dead code: program code that is never executed.