Abstract-In this paper, we propose a generalized code index modulation (CIM) technique for direct sequence-spread spectrum (DS-SS) communication. In particular, at the transmitter, the bit stream is divided into blocks in which each block is divided into two sub-blocks, named as mapped and modulated sub-block. Thereafter, the bits within the mapped sub-block are used to select one of the predefined spreading codes, which is then used to spread the modulated bits of the second sub-block. In this design, the use of the spreading code index as an information-bearing unit increases the overall spectral efficiency of this system. At the receiver side, the spreading code index is first estimated, thus resulting in a direct estimation of mapped sub-block bits. Consequently, the corresponding spreading code to this estimated index is used to de-spread the modulated symbol of the modulated sub-block. Subsequently, mathematical expressions for bit error rate, symbol error rate, throughput, energy efficiency, and the system complexity are derived to analyze the system performance. Finally, simulation results show that the proposed modulation scheme can achieve higher data rate than the conventional DS-SS system, with lower energy consumption and complexity.