order

plural orders · alternative obsolete ordre

1. countableArrangement, disposition, or sequence.

   put the children in age order

   1 more example

   It's arranged in order of frequency

2. countableA position in an arrangement, disposition, or sequence.

   1897, T. L. Heath (translator), Eutocius of Ascalon, Extract from a commentary by Eutocius, quoted in 1897 [CUP], T. L. Heath (editor), The Works of Archimedes, 2002, Dover, unnumbered page, His attempt I shall also give in its order.

   5 more examples

   In these situations we find the Genesee slate, the Tully limestone and the upper part of the Hamilton group, each one in its order disappearing beneath the lake level as we proceed southward.

   1843, New York (State). Natural History Survey, Geology of New-York: Comprising the survey of the fourth geological ...

   In the latter portion of this period, the country was assailed by famine and pestilence - — a fearful visitation which will be noticed hereafter in its order of date, and of which it would be out of place to say more at present.

   1856, George Nicholls, A History of the Irish Poor Law: In Connexion with the Condition of the People

   This narrative must be discussed later on, in its order.

   1915, Edwin Abbott Abbott, the fourfold gospel the proclamation of the new kingdom, page 298

   The latter comes into play only as we examine each word in its order in the line.

   1996, John Clare, Eric Robinson, David Powell, John Clare: Poems of the Middle Period, 1822-1837, page xxxi

   Hasn't it been shown that the Hebrew letter “w” is equivalent to the number 6, due to its order in the alphabet, he asked?

   2013, Leah Sarat, Fire in the Canyon: Religion, Migration, and the Mexican Dream

3. uncountableThe state of being well arranged.

   The house is in order; the machinery is out of order.

4. countableConformity with law or decorum; freedom from disturbance; general tranquillity; public quiet.

   Order in the court!

   3 more examples

   to preserve order in a community or an assembly

   Order devolved into anarchy.

   He's the only person I know who's going to vote at all. Most people have given up on politicians. After all, politicians have been promising to return us to the glory, wealth, and order of the twentieth century ever since I can remember.

   1993, Octavia Butler, chapter 3, in The Parable of the Sower

5. countableA command.

   give an order

   3 more examples

   his inability to follow orders

   It was by his order the shattered leading company flung itself into the houses when the Sin Verguenza were met by an enfilading volley as they reeled into the calle.

   1907 January, Harold Bindloss, chapter 30, in The Dust of Conflict, 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: McLeod & Allen, →OCLC

   John Hedley was Locomotive Foreman at Beattock. He was in bed, but they roused him, and he gave orders for one of his pilot engines to go up to the summit, get Mitchell's train, and take it to Carlisle.

   1950 January, David L. Smith, “A Runaway at Beattock”, in Railway Magazine, page 53

6. countableA request for some product or service; a commission to purchase, sell, or supply goods.

   make an order

   2 more examples

   place an online order for the new range of sunglasses

   A farmer could place an order for a new tractor part by text message and pay for it by mobile money-transfer.

   2012 December 1, “An internet of airborne things”, in The Economist, volume 405, number 8813, page 3 (Technology Quarterly)

7. countableThe goods requested.

   Your order should arrive within two days.

   1 more example

   The waiter brought our orders to the table, but forgot the cutlery.

8. countableA group of religious adherents, especially monks or nuns, set apart within their religion by adherence to a particular rule or set of principles.

   St. Ignatius Loyola founded the Jesuit order in 1537.

9. countableAn association of knights.

   the Order of the Garter, the Order of the Bath.

10. countableuncountableAny group of people with common interests.
11. countableA decoration, awarded by a government, a dynastic house, or a religious body to an individual, usually for distinguished service to a nation or to humanity.

    1 more example

    The Order of Propitious Clouds is a civilian order that can be awarded to Taiwan citizens or foreign nationals. It is divided into a total of nine "classes" or grades, of which the Special Grand Cordon is the highest. Pelosi said she was particularly honored to receive the award from Tsai -- "a woman president in one of the freest societies in the world."

    2022 August 3, Matthew Mazzetta, “President Tsai awards state honor to visiting U.S. House speaker”, in Focus Taiwan, archived from the original on 03 Aug 2022

12. countablebiologyA category in the classification of organisms, ranking below class and above family; a taxon at that rank.

    The magnolia and nutmeg families belong to the order Magnoliales.

    1 more example

    Bats host many high-profile viruses that can infect humans, including severe acute respiratory syndrome and Ebola. A recent study explored the ecological variables that may contribute to bats’ propensity to harbor such zoonotic diseases by comparing them with another order of common reservoir hosts: rodents.

    2013 May-June, Katie L. Burke, “In the News”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, page 193

13. countableuncountableA number of things or persons arranged in a fixed or suitable place, or relative position; a rank; a row; a grade; especially, a rank or class in society; a distinct character, kind, or sort.

    talent of a high order

    4 more examples

    the higher or lower orders of society

    They are in equal order to their several ends.

    1651, Jer[emy] Taylor, The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living. […], 2nd edition, London: […] Francis Ashe […], →OCLC

    Various orders various ensigns bear.

    1726, George Granville, The British Enchanters

    […] which, to his order of mind, must have seemed little short of crime.

    1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC

14. countableuncountableChristianityAn ecclesiastical rank or position, usually for the sake of ministry, (especially, when plural) holy orders.

    to take orders or holy orders means to be ordained a deacon or priest

    1 more example

    There have been many major and minor orders in the history of Christianity: the order of virgins, of deacons, priests, lectors, acolytes, porters, catechists, widows, etc.

15. countableuncountablearchitectureThe disposition of a column and its component parts, and of the entablature resting upon it, in classical architecture; hence (since the column and entablature are the characteristic features of classical architecture) a style or manner of architectural design.
16. countableuncountableball gamesThe sequence in which a side’s batsmen bat; the batting order.
17. countableuncountableengineeringScale: size or scope.

    on another order

18. countableuncountablebusinessA power of polynomial function in an electronic circuit’s block, such as a filter, an amplifier, etc.

    a 3-stage cascade of a 2nd-order bandpass Butterworth filter

19. countableuncountablechemistryThe overall power of the rate law of a chemical reaction, expressed as a polynomial function of concentrations of reactants and products.
20. countableuncountablemathematicsThe number of elements contained within (the given object); formally, the cardinality (of the given object).

    For various reasons it turns out to be better to enlarge this set of invariants to include suitable normalizers of subgroups of odd prime order.

    2000, Michael Aschbacher, Finite Group Theory, 2nd edition, Cambridge University Press, page 260

    1 more example

    1911 [Cambridge University Press], William Burnside, Theory of Groups of Finite Order, 2nd Edition, Reprint, Dover (Dover Phoenix), 2004, page 222, In this case, the conjugate set contains n(n − 1)/x(x − 1) distinct sub-groups of order m, and H is therefore self-conjugate in a group K of order x(x − l)m.

21. countableuncountablegroup theoryThe smallest positive natural number n such that (denoting the group operation multiplicatively) gⁿ is the identity element of G, if such an n exists; if no such n exists the element is said to be of infinite order (or sometimes zero order).

    2010, A. R. Vasishta, A. K. Vasishta, Modern Algebra, Krishna Prakashan Media, 60th Edition, page 180, Since in a finite group the order of an element must be a divisor of the order of the group, therefore o (a) cannot be 3 and so we must have o (a)=4=the order of the group G.

    2 more examples

    The object of this note is to observe that it is possible to calculate the order of an element A of G#61;#92;mathit#123;GL#125;(d,q) on average using O(d³#92;mathsf#123;log#125;#92;q) field operations, assuming that qⁱ-1 has been factorised for i#92;led.

    1997, Frank Celler, C. R. Leedham-Green, “Calculating the Order of an Invertible Matrix”, in Larry Finkelstein, William M. Kantor, editors, Groups and Computation II, American Mathematical Society, page 55

    1999, A. Ehrenfeucht, T. Harju, G. Rozenberg, The Theory of 2-structures, World Scientific, page 15, If Δ is a finite group, its cardinality is called the order of Δ. The order of an element a∈Δ is defined as the smallest nonnegative integer n such that aⁿ=1_Δ. The second case of the following result is known as Cauchy's theorem. Theorem 1.10 Let Δ be a finite group. (i) The order of an element a∈Δ divides the order |Δ| of the group. (ii) If a prime number p divides |Δ|, then there exists an element a∈Δ of order p.

22. countableuncountablegraph theoryThe number of vertices in the graph (i.e. the set-theoretic order of the set of vertices of the graph).
23. countableuncountablemathematicsA partially ordered set.
24. countableuncountablemathematicsThe relation with which a partially ordered set is equipped.
25. countableuncountablealgebraThe sum of the exponents of the variables involved in the expression.

    The monomial x²ʸ³ᶻ is of order 2#43;3#43;1#61;6.

26. countableuncountablealgebraThe order of the leading monomial; (equivalently) the largest power of the variable involved in the given expression.

    The quadratic polynomial ax²#43;bx#43;c, is said to be of order (or degree) 2 when a is nonzero.

    Synonyms: degree

27. countableuncountablebusinessA written direction to furnish someone with money or property; compare money order, postal order.

    I then walked to Cochrane's & got an order on Sir Charles Asgill for my money.

    1763, James Boswell, edited by Gordon Turnbull, London Journal 1762-1763, Penguin, published 2014, page 233

present singular third person orders · participle present ordering · participle past ordered · past ordered · first person past singular ordered · archaic present second person singular orderest · past second person singular ordered · archaic past second person singular orderedst · present singular third person orders · archaic present singular third person ordereth · past singular third person ordered · past plural ordered · past subjunctive ordered · participle present ordering · participle past ordered · alternative obsolete ordre

1. transitiveTo set in some sort of order.

   We need to order them alphabetically.

   Synonyms: sort, rank

2. transitiveTo arrange, set in proper order.

   The books in the shelf need ordering.

3. transitiveTo issue a command to; to charge.

   He ordered me to leave.

   4 more examples

   to order troops to advance

   Napoleon ordered Villeneuve north to France.

   I hate being ordered around by my co-workers.

   The "D.N.B." wrote of one Railway Member that "he made himself personally acquainted with the working of the new systems of railroads, and with more foresight than his neighbours, he welcomed railways on his estate when other landowners were ordering their gamekeepers to warn off the surveyors or to put an end to their operations by force."

   1960 March 28, N. Caplan, “The Railway Member of Parliament”, in Railway Magazine, page 208

   Synonyms: command

4. transitiveTo request some product or service; to secure by placing an order.

   to order groceries

   2 more examples

   You can now order most products to be delivered to your home.

   to order food from a restaurant

5. To admit to holy orders; to ordain; to receive into the ranks of the ministry.

   persons presented to be ordered deacons

   1549 March 7, Thomas Cranmer [et al.], compilers, The Booke of the Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacramentes, […], London: […] Edowardi Whitchurche […], →OCLC

1. scoutingThe Order of the Arrow.