Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Arranged in regular rows, as the spots on the wings of an insect.
  • noun The plane Cartesian coordinate representing the distance from a specified point to the x-axis, measured parallel to the y-axis.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Regular.
  • Well-regulated; orderly; proper; due.
  • In entomology, placed in one or more regular rows: as, ordinate spines, punctures, spots, etc.
  • noun In analytical geometry, a line used to determine the position of a point in space, drawn from the point to the axis of abscissas and parallel to the axis of ordinates. See abscissa, and Cartesian coördinates (under Cartesian).
  • To ordain; appoint.
  • To direct; dispose.
  • noun Any one of a set of parallel chords of a conic in relation to the diameter bisecting them. What in this sense was called semiordinate is now usually called ordinate.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Geom.) The distance of any point in a curve or a straight line, measured on a line called the axis of ordinates or on a line parallel to it, from another line called the axis of abscissas, on which the corresponding abscissa of the point is measured.
  • adjective Well-ordered; orderly; regular; methodical.
  • adjective (Math.) a figure whose sides and angles are equal; a regular figure.
  • transitive verb To appoint, to regulate; to harmonize.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun mathematics the value of a coordinate on the vertical (Y) axis
  • verb transitive to ordain a priest, or consecrate a bishop
  • verb transitive to align a series of objects
  • adjective arranged regularly in rows; orderly; disposed or arranged in an orderly or regular fashion.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb bring (components or parts) into proper or desirable coordination correlation
  • verb appoint to a clerical posts
  • noun the value of a coordinate on the vertical axis

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, properly ordered, from Latin ōrdinātus, past participle of ōrdināre, to set in order, from ōrdō, ōrdin-, order; see ar- in Indo-European roots.]

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Examples

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  • The y-coordinate

    September 25, 2007

  • Why does the independent axis get so much more love than the dependent?

    September 8, 2008