Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂er-der. Proto-Italic *ordōder. Latin ōrdinem Old French ordneder. Middle English ordre English order 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 *ordō (“to arrange”), probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂or-d-, from *h₂er-. Related to Latin ōrdior (“begin”, literally “begin to weave”). In sense “request for purchase”, compare bespoke. Doublet of ordo. Compare typologically Russian поря́док (porjádok) (akin to ряд (rjad)).
A position in an arrangement, disposition, or sequence.
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:
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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.
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:
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The state of being well arranged.
The house is in order; the machinery is out of order.
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Conformity with law or decorum; freedom from disturbance; general tranquillity; public quiet.
to preserve order in a community or an assembly
Order in the court!
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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:
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A command.
give an order
his inability to follow orders
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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:
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A request for some product or service; a commission to purchase, sell, or supply goods.
make an order
receive an online order for the new range of sunglasses
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I ordered a burger and some fries.
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):
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A 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.
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An association of knights.
the Order of the Garter, the Order of the Bath.
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Any group of people with common interests.
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A 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.
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:
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Biology, Natural sciences, Taxonomy A 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.
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:
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A 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.
the higher or lower orders of society
talent of a high order
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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:
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Christianity An ecclesiastical rank or position, usually for the sake of ministry, (especially, when plural) holy orders.
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.
to take orders or holy orders means to be ordained a deacon or priest
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Architecture The 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.
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Ball games, Cricket, Games, Hobbies, Lifestyle, Sports The sequence in which a side’s batsmen bat; the batting order.
a 3-stage cascade of a 2nd-order bandpass Butterworth filter
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Chemistry, Natural sciences, Physical sciences The overall power of the rate law of a chemical reaction, expressed as a polynomial function of concentrations of reactants and products.
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Mathematics, Sciences, Set theory The number of elements contained within (the given object); formally, the cardinality (of the given object).
Of a set or algebraic structure
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.
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:
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Group theory, Mathematics, Sciences The 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).
Of an element g of a group G
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.
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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.
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Graph theory, Mathematics, SciencesOf a graph The number of vertices in the graph (i.e. the set-theoretic order of the set of vertices of the graph).
Mathematics, Order theory, Sciences The relation with which a partially ordered set is equipped.
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Algebra, Mathematics, SciencesOf a monomial The sum of the exponents of the variables involved in the expression.
The monomial x²ʸ³ᶻ is of order 2#43;3#43;1#61;6.
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Algebra, Mathematics, Sciences The order of the leading monomial; (equivalently) the largest power of the variable involved in the given expression.
Of a polynomial in one variable
The quadratic polynomial ax²#43;bx#43;c, is said to be of order (or degree) 2 when a is nonzero.
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Business, Finance A 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:
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂er-der. Proto-Italic *ordōder. Latin ōrdinem Old French ordneder. Middle English ordre English order 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 *ordō (“to arrange”), probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂or-d-, from *h₂er-. Related to Latin ōrdior (“begin”, literally “begin to weave”). In sense “request for purchase”, compare bespoke. Doublet of ordo. Compare typologically Russian поря́док (porjádok) (akin to ряд (rjad)).
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To set in some sort of order.
We need to order them alphabetically.
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To arrange, set in proper order.
The books in the shelf need ordering.
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To issue a command to; to charge.
to order troops to advance
He ordered me to leave.
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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 23, N. Caplan, “The Railway Member of Parliament”, in Railway Magazine, page 208:
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To request some product or service; to secure by placing an order.
You can now order most products to be delivered to your home.
to order groceries
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to order food from a restaurant
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To admit to holy orders; to ordain; to receive into the ranks of the ministry.
persons presented to be ordered deacons1549 March 7, Thomas Cranmer [et al.], compilers, The Booke of the Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacramentes, […], London: […] Edowardi Whitchurche […], →OCLC: