From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
processing
n 1: preparing or putting through a prescribed procedure; "the
processing of newly arrived immigrants"; "the processing of
ore to obtain minerals"
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008) [foldoc]:
processing
<data processing, signal processing> Performing some
predefined sequence of operations on an input to produce an
output or change of internal state; activity specifically
involving the computer's CPU.
The term is often qualified: "data processing" treats
digital data, "signal processing" treats analog data
(possibly in digital form), "word processing" takes in typed
human language input and produces digital documents, {image
processing} transforms digital images.
(2003-10-23)