Definitions

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

  • noun A condition of logical or comprehensible arrangement among the separate elements of a group.
  • noun A condition of methodical or prescribed arrangement among component parts such that proper functioning or appearance is achieved.
  • noun Condition or state in general.
  • noun The established system of social organization.
  • noun A condition in which freedom from disorder or disruption is maintained through respect for established authority.
  • noun A sequence or arrangement of successive things.
  • noun The prescribed form or customary procedure, as in a meeting or court of law.
  • noun An authoritative indication to be obeyed; a command or direction.
  • noun A command given by a superior military officer requiring obedience, as in the execution of a task.
  • noun Formal written instructions to report for military duty at a specified time and place.
  • noun A commission or instruction to buy, sell, or supply something.
  • noun That which is supplied, bought, or sold.
  • noun A request made by a customer at a restaurant for a portion of food.
  • noun The food requested.
  • noun Law A directive or command of a court.
  • noun Any of several grades of the Christian ministry.
  • noun The rank of an ordained Christian minister or priest.
  • noun The sacrament or rite of ordination.
  • noun Any of the nine grades or choirs of angels.
  • noun A group of persons living under a religious rule.
  • noun An organization of people united by a common fraternal bond or social aim.
  • noun A group of people upon whom a government or sovereign has formally conferred honor for unusual service or merit, entitling them to wear a special insignia.
  • noun The insignia worn by such people.
  • noun A social class.
  • noun A class defined by the common attributes of its members; a kind.
  • noun Degree of quality or importance; rank.
  • noun Any of several styles of classical architecture characterized by the type of column and entablature employed. Of the five generally accepted classical orders, the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders are Greek and the Tuscan and Composite orders are Roman.
  • noun A style of building.
  • noun Biology A taxonomic category of organisms ranking above a family and below a class.
  • noun The sum of the exponents to which the variables in a term are raised; degree.
  • noun An indicated number of successive differentiations to be performed.
  • noun The number of elements in a finite group.
  • noun The number of rows or columns in a determinant or matrix.
  • intransitive verb To issue a command or instruction to.
  • intransitive verb To direct to proceed as specified.
  • intransitive verb To give a command or instruction for.
  • intransitive verb To request to be supplied with.
  • intransitive verb To put into a methodical, systematic arrangement: synonym: arrange.
  • intransitive verb To predestine; ordain.

Etymologies

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

[Middle English ordre, from Old French, variant of ordene, from Latin ōrdō, ōrdin-; see ar- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English ordre, from Old French ordre, ordne, ordene ("order, rank"), from Latin ōrdinem, accusative of ōrdō ("row, rank, regular arrangement", literally "row of threads in a loom"), from Proto-Italic *ored(h)- (“to arrange”), of unknown origin. Related to Latin ōrdior ("begin", literally "begin to weave").

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Examples

  • ~ Hidden order found in a quantum spin liquid -- An international team, including scientists from the London Centre for Nanotechnology, has detected a hidden magnetic “quantum order” that extends over chains of 100 atoms in a ceramic without classical magnetism.

    Speedlinking 7/26/07 William Harryman 2007

  • As Ablatives of Cause are to be reckoned also such Ablatives as jussū, by order of, injussū, _without the order_, rogātū, etc.

    New Latin Grammar Charles E. Bennett

  • The chief reasons for it are undoubtedly that (i.) the order of facts in Mark is the _normal order_ of the whole narrative of the Synoptists, and (ii.) in the main, the language of Mark explains the verbal agreements between Matt. and Luke.

    The Books of the New Testament Leighton Pullan 1902

  • Lieutenant Parker to come out, in order that he might make room for two smaller men, and he _obeyed the order_.

    The Naval History of the United States Volume 2 (of 2) Willis J. Abbot 1898

  • "Outside the gate" of the old order, the disciple finds himself at once not an isolated unit but included in _a new order_.

    Messages from the Epistle to the Hebrews 1880

  • The order of castes, the _order of rank_, simply formulates the supreme law of life itself; the separation of the three types is necessary to the maintenance of society, and to the evolution of higher types, and the highest types -- the _inequality_ of rights is essential to the existence of any rights at all.

    The Antichrist Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche 1872

  • From that moment, one found one's self in revolt _against_ the established order, and began to understand Jesus as _in revolt against the established order_.

    The Antichrist Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche 1872

  • Harrison had placed himself with his staff, colonel Wood approached him with intelligence, that having reconnoitered the enemy, he had ascertained the singular fact, that the British lines, instead of the usual close order, were drawn up at _open order_.

    Life of Tecumseh, and of His Brother the Prophet With a Historical Sketch of the Shawanoe Indians Benjamin Drake 1817

  • As to individuals, other methods were employed with them, in order so thoroughly to disunite every party, and even every family, that _no concert_, _order_, _or effect_, _might appear in any future opposition_.

    Thoughts on the Present Discontents, and Speeches, etc. Edmund Burke 1763

  • I track the order to find a blank business card against the order# (no information added) and the email address used was not mine.

    unknown title 2009

Comments

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  • To try, in retrospect, to impose some appearance of order in his life, every January this one guy would compile a list of his One Hundred Favorite Illnesses And Accidents of the previous year.

    --Jan Cox

    November 8, 2007

  • Cricket jargon - the sequence in which members of the batting team take their turn at bat. Often used in compounds such as top order, down the order and so on.

    December 1, 2007

  • No misses ordered roses, Simon

    October 18, 2008