order

Syllables: or·derUK/ˈɔː.də//ˈoɹ.dɚ/

order noun: arrangement, disposition, or sequence.

Image: James and John Knapton, et al. Chambers, Ephraim, ed, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

order (countable and uncountable, plural orders)

(countable) Arrangement, disposition, or sequence.
- put the children in age order
- It's arranged in order of frequency
(countable) 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
(uncountable) The state of being well arranged.
- The house is in order; the machinery is out of order.
(countable) 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!
(countable) A command.
- give an order
- his inability to follow orders
(countable) A request for some product or service; a commission to purchase, sell, or supply goods.
- make an order
- place an online order for the new range of sunglasses
(countable) The goods requested.
- Your order should arrive within two days.
- The waiter brought our orders to the table, but forgot the cutlery.
(countable) 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.
(countable) An association of knights.
- the Order of the Garter, the Order of the Bath.
Any group of people with common interests.
(countable) 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...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
(countable) 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...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
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
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.
The sequence in which a side’s batsmen bat; the batting order.
Scale: size or scope.
- on another order
A 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
The overall power of the rate law of a chemical reaction, expressed as a polynomial function of concentrations of reactants and products.
The number of elements contained within (the given object); formally, the cardinality (of the given object).
- 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...
- 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
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).
- 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...
- 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...1999, A. Ehrenfeucht, T. Harju, G. Rozenberg, The Theory of 2-structures, World Scientific, page 15
The number of vertices in the graph (i.e. the set-theoretic order of the set of vertices of the graph).
A partially ordered set.
The relation with which a partially ordered set is equipped.
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.
The 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
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

Verb

order (third-person singular simple present orders, present participle ordering, simple past and past participle ordered)

(transitive) To set in some sort of order.
- We need to order them alphabetically.
Synonyms:

sort, rank
(transitive) To arrange, set in proper order.
- The books in the shelf need ordering.
(transitive) To issue a command to; to charge.
- to order troops to advance
- He ordered me to leave.
Synonyms:

command
(transitive) 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
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

Proper noun capitalized: Order

the Order

(scouting) The Order of the Arrow.

order meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

order in Hindi

arrangement, disposition: नियम niyam, क्रम kram, व्यवस्था vyavasthā, विधान vidhān, प्रणाली praṇālī
good arrangement: सुव्यवस्था suvyavasthā, क्रम पद्धति kram paddhati
command: आदेश ādeś, आज्ञा ājñā, हुक्म hukma, फ़रमान farmān
request for some product or service: ऑर्डर ŏrḍar, मँगवाना maṅgvānā

order in Tamil

command: ஆணை āṇai, கட்டளை kaṭṭaḷai, உத்தரவு uttaravu
request for some product or service: ஆர்டர் ārṭar
to request some product or service: ஆர்டர் பண்ணு ārṭar paṇṇu

order in Marathi

order, instruction, mandate: आदेश ādeś
order, instruction: हुकूम hukūm
order, sequence, gradation: अनुक्रम anukram

order in Urdu

arrangement, disposition: تَرْتِیب tartīb, نِظام nizām
good arrangement: تَرْتِیب tartīb
command: حُکْم hukm, فَرْمان farmān, اَمْر amr, دَسْتُور dastūr
request for some product or service: فَرْمائِش farmāiś, طَلَب talab

More languagesFewer languages

order in Bengali: আদেশ adeś, আজ্ঞা ajna
order in Telugu: అమరిక amarika, క్రమ పద్ధతి krama paddhati, ఆదేశము ādēśamu, క్రమము kramamu
order in Malayalam: കൽപന kalpana, ഉത്തരവ് uttaravŭ, ആജ്ഞ ājña
order in Kannada: ತಾಕೀತು tākītu, ಸಂದೇಶ sandēśa, ಫರ್ಮಾನು pharmānu, ವಿಧಿ vidhi
order in Punjabi: فرمان farmān, ਫ਼ਰਮਾਨ farmān, ਹੁਕਮ hukam, ਫ਼ਰਮਾਉਣਾ farmāuṇā
order in Gujarati: હુકમ hukam, ફરમાન pharmān, ફરમાવવું pharmāvvũ
order in Odia: ନିର୍ଦ୍ଦେଶ nirddeśa, ଆଜ୍ଞା ājñā
order in Sanskrit: विधान vidhāna, आज्ञा ājñā
order in Assamese: আজ্ঞা agga
order in Nepali: मगाउनु magāunu
order in Pashto: امر, حکم hukm
order in Tagalog: kasunran, katiwasayan, utos, orden
order in Arabic: تَرْتِيب tartīb, نِظَام niẓām, أَمْر ʔamr, حُكْم ḥukm
order in Malay: perintah, pesanan, meminta
order in Indonesian: aturan, susunan, ordo, perintah
order in Persian: فرمودن farmudan, سفارش دادن sefâreš dâdan
order in Thai: ระเบียบ rá-bìiap, ลำดับ lam-dàp, อันดับ an-dàp, ขนบ kà-nòp
order in Vietnamese: thứ tự, đặt, lệnh, mệnh lệnh
order in Myanmar: အစဉ် a.cany, အစီအလျဉ် a.cia.lyany, အစီအစဉ် a.cia.cany, အမှာ a.hma

Examples of order in a sentence

Napoleon ordered Villeneuve north to France.
I hate being ordered around by my co-workers.
to order food from a restaurant
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:

All 40 example sentences with order

Synonyms of order

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of order

Forms of order

Noun
plural	orders
alternative form (obsolete)	ordre
Verb
third-person singular present	orders
present participle	ordering
past participle	ordered
past	ordered
second-person singular present (archaic)	orderest
second-person singular past (archaic)	orderedst
third-person singular present (archaic)	ordereth

Past tense of order: ordered

Plural of order: orders

Origin of 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)).

Words formed from order

Phrases with order

165 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with order

2 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about order

What does order mean?: Order means arrangement, disposition, or sequence.
What is order in Hindi?: Order in Hindi is नियम (niyam), क्रम (kram), व्यवस्था (vyavasthā). See Order meaning in Hindi.
How do you use order in a sentence?: Napoleon ordered Villeneuve north to France.
What part of speech is order?: Order can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce order?: Order is pronounced /ˈɔː.də/ (UK).
What is the plural of order?: The plural of order is orders.

Words near order in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: order (page history and authors); Order (page history and authors); अनुक्रम (Marathi) (page history and authors); ತಾಕೀತು (Kannada) (page history and authors); آکھنا (Punjabi) (page history and authors); ફરમાન (Gujarati) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-order.ogg, en-au-order.ogg.

Cite this entry: “order.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/order. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.