order
Noun pluralorders
Formsorders, ordering, ordered
Pluralorders
- 1To request a product or service, or to secure it by placing a request to buy or supply.
The company ordered new equipment for the warehouse.
She wants to order a custom cake for the party.
UsageOrder something from a company or online: order a pizza, order books from a website.
Similarbuy, purchase, request, commission
Oppositecancel
- 2A request for a product or service, or a commission to buy, sell, or supply goods; also the goods so requested, as in 'your order has shipped'.
The factory received a large order for replacement parts.
She canceled the customer's order after the payment failed.
UsageYou place an order for goods (an order for parts); you give or follow an order from someone in charge.
Similarrequest, purchase, commission
- 3To issue a command to someone; to direct or charge a person to act.
The general ordered the troops to advance at dawn.
Officials may order residents to evacuate before a storm.
UsagePerson + to + verb: ordered the troops to advance. Order someone around means boss them.
- 4An authoritative instruction or command that is expected to be obeyed.
The captain's order sent the crew scrambling to their stations.
Troops are trained to carry out every order immediately.
UsageYou give, follow or obey orders; on someone's orders means because they commanded it.
Similarcommand, instruction, directive
- 5The arrangement or sequence in which things are placed, or a thing's position within it.
She rearranged the photos in chronological order.
The recipe steps must be followed in the correct order.
UsageUsually after in: in alphabetical order, in order of size, in the right order.
Similarsequence, arrangement, succession
- 6The condition of being neatly and properly arranged.
It took the whole weekend, but she finally brought some order to the garage, with every tool hanging on its own hook.
He likes to keep his finances in good order.
UsageCommon in in order and put something in order. Out of order usually means not working.
Similartidiness, neatness, organization
- 7A condition of public calm in which laws and decorum are observed and disturbance is absent.
The new mayor promised to restore order to the troubled city.
Soldiers were sent in to maintain order after the riots.
UsageCommon in restore order, keep order and law and order.
- 8The overall arrangement of a society, a government, or a group of countries during a given period, considered as a single system.
Many analysts feared that the rise of new powers would upset the postwar international order.
The protesters wanted to tear down the existing social order, not simply reform it.
UsageOften in the social order, the world order and a new order.
- 9A decoration that a government, dynastic house, or religious body confers on a person, typically in recognition of outstanding service to their country or to humanity.
He was awarded a national order for decades of public service.
At the state dinner, the retired ambassador wore the gold star of the order his country had awarded him for decades of service.
Similardecoration, honor, award
Note
An honor of this kind is often graded rather than single. The Order of Propitious Clouds, a Taiwanese civilian order open to citizens and foreign nationals, is divided into nine classes, with the Special Grand Cordon as the highest. A recipient is therefore admitted to a particular grade of the order, and the full title is capitalized as a proper name.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 6 facts
- Orders of honor often have multiple grades. honours.cabinetoffice.gov.uk
- The Order of Propitious Clouds is a Taiwanese civilian order. en.wikipedia.org
- Both citizens and foreign nationals may receive the order. en.wikipedia.org
- The order has nine classes. english.president.gov.tw
- Special Grand Cordon is the highest class. en.wikipedia.org
- Recipients receive a particular grade of the order. english.president.gov.tw
- 10A community of religious adherents, especially monks or nuns, set apart by adherence to a particular rule or set of principles.
He entered a contemplative order devoted to prayer and silence.
The order has maintained the same daily routine for centuries.
UsageOften join or enter an order: a religious order.
Similarcommunity, brotherhood, congregation
- 11A category in the classification of living things, ranking below class and above family.
Beetles form the largest order of insects, with hundreds of thousands of species.
The biologist reassigned the species to a different order after genetic testing.
Note
Taxonomists write it in a fixed pattern: the rank word in lowercase, followed by a capitalized formal name, as in the order Magnoliales. That order is home to both the magnolia and nutmeg families. A single order gathers several related families, and several orders together make up a class.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- Magnoliales includes the magnolia and nutmeg families. en.wikipedia.org
- An order groups related families and ranks between family and class. en.wikipedia.org
- A class groups related orders. en.wikipedia.org
- 12A rank, grade, or row of things or persons in relative position (especially a class in society) or a distinct kind or sort.
In medieval society, the clergy formed a distinct order with its own privileges.
Her talent is of an entirely different order from that of her peers.
UsageOften of a high order for quality; the lower orders for social class is dated and sounds condescending.
Similarclass, rank, estate, kind, caliber
Note
Society's ladder lives here: the higher and lower orders of society, or the clergy as a distinct order. A second use measures quality, as in talent of a high order, where the word means caliber rather than social station. George Granville's line "Various orders various ensigns bear", from his play The British Enchanters, shows ranks set apart by their visible signs.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
- George Granville wrote The British Enchanters. en.wikisource.org
- The quoted words occur in The British Enchanters, in Urganda's speech in Act I; the full verse line begins with “And.” en.wikisource.org
- 13The sequence in which a team's players take their turns to bat, as in cricket or baseball.
The selectors finalized the order before the first ball was bowled.
Moving up the order gave the young player more time at the crease.
UsageA player moves up or down the order.
Similarlineup
Note
Specialist batsmen typically come in ahead of all-rounders and bowlers. Being sent up the order often signals confidence in a player's batting, and dropping down can suggest the opposite, though a move may also be tactical, as with a nightwatchman.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Specialist batsmen generally bat before all-rounders and specialist bowlers. en.wikipedia.org
Less common meanings
- 14The state that something is in, particularly whether a machine or device functions as it should, as in the phrase in working order.
The landlord must keep the heating system in working order all winter.
The used car was sold in excellent running order, with new brakes and tires.
UsageMostly in in working order and in good order. A broken machine is out of order.
- 15
- 16A written instruction directing someone to pay out money or deliver property to a named party.
Like a check, which directs a bank to pay whoever holds it.
The warehouse refused to release the crates until she showed a signed order from the owner directing delivery to her firm.
The order was endorsed and then presented for payment at the counter.
Note
A commercial instrument drawn as an order on whoever holds the funds. James Boswell's London Journal records that in 1763 he "got an order on Sir Charles Asgill for my money." The preposition on names the party who must pay. Money orders and postal orders are the familiar standardized forms of the same instrument.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- Wiktionary attributes the quoted words to James Boswell's London Journal and dates the entry to 1763. en.wiktionary.org
- Money orders are instructions to pay money from funds supplied beforehand. en.wikipedia.org
- Postal orders are a type of money order payable to a named recipient. en.wikipedia.org
- 17The approximate scale of something: its size or scope, often expressed in factors of ten.
The total damage was on the order of several million dollars.
The new telescope improves resolution by an order of magnitude.
UsageFixed phrases: on the order of (roughly) and an order of magnitude (about ten times).
Similarscale
Note
Scientists and engineers use it mainly in fixed phrases. On the order of means "roughly," within a factor of about ten. An order of magnitude is one power of ten, so a difference of one order is a roughly tenfold change. Quantities of the same order can be compared directly, while "on another order" signals a different scale altogether.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
- In scientific estimation, the stated approximation can mean accuracy within about a factor of ten. teachers.yale.edu
- A difference of one order of magnitude corresponds to a factor of ten. ccnmtl.columbia.edu
- 18A body of people united by shared interests, aims, or beliefs.
Her grandfather belonged to a fraternal order that met every Tuesday night and ran the town's spring pancake breakfast.
The order admitted only those who pledged to support its causes.
Similarsociety, fellowship, association, guild
- 19An association of knights, typically formed as a chivalric or honorary body.
Only nobles who had proven themselves in battle could enter the order.
The medieval order maintained its own castles and hospitals across the kingdom.
Similarbrotherhood, fellowship, fraternity
- 20A portion of one dish or food item that a customer buys at a restaurant or food stand.
She finished the whole order of onion rings before her burger even arrived.
Between the four of us, we went through three orders of nachos at the game.
UsageAn order of + food: an order of fries, two orders of nachos.
Note
It counts plates of food, not requests, which is how a single order placed at the counter can hold three orders of nachos.
- 21A rank or position within the church, usually conferred for the sake of ministry; in the plural, holy orders.
She was raised to the order of priest after a year as a deacon.
Entry into holy orders required the bishop's formal approval.
UsageUsually in holy orders and take orders; a priest is in orders, a monk joins an order.
Similarrank
Note
The vocabulary of ordination: to take orders, or holy orders, is to be ordained a deacon or priest, and the plural is the usual form in that phrase. Over its history the church recognized many grades, divided into major and minor orders, including deacons, lectors, acolytes, porters and widows.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- The church historically recognized major and minor orders, including deacons, lectors, acolytes and porters. fwdioc.org
- Widows were historically recognized among the church's minor orders. cris.winchester.ac.uk
- 22In classical architecture, the arrangement of a column with its parts and the entablature above it; hence, a style or manner of architectural design.
The portico follows the Corinthian order, with its richly carved capitals.
Each classical order carries its own rules of proportion and ornament.
Similarstyle
Note
Classical architecture recognizes five canonical orders: Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Tuscan and Composite. Each is a codified system of base (except in Greek Doric), shaft, capital and entablature, with its own rules of proportion and ornament. The word covers the whole assembly, not just the column, which is how it came to mean a style of design. The names are capitalized: the Corinthian order, a Doric portico.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 5 facts
- There are five canonical classical orders: Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Tuscan and Composite. iopn.library.illinois.edu
- Greek Doric columns have no base; the description needs that exception. metmuseum.org
- The orders have distinctive rules of proportion and ornament. en.wikipedia.org
- An architectural order encompasses the column and entablature together. lookingatbuildings.org.uk
- The column-and-entablature sense extends to a style of architectural design because these are characteristic features of classical architecture. en.wiktionary.org
- 23The settled rules and procedures for running a meeting, debate, or legislature, together with the practice of following them.
Before the vote, a senator rose on a point of order to ask whether the amendment was allowed under the chamber's rules.
One member rose on a point of order, arguing that the debate had already run past its time limit.
UsageFixed phrases: a point of order, out of order, call the meeting to order.
Note
Procedure is the point here, and it lives in fixed phrases. A member who rises on a point of order is questioning whether the rules are being followed, and a motion ruled out of order has broken the chamber's rules, whatever its merits.
- 24To admit a person to holy orders; to ordain someone into the ranks of the ministry.
persons presented to be ordered deacons
1549, Thomas Cranmer [et al.], compilers - 25In algebra, the highest power of the variable in an expression, or the sum of the exponents in a single term.
- 26In chemistry, the overall power of a reaction's rate law, expressed in terms of the concentrations of its reactants and products.
- 27In mathematics, the number of elements in a set or other object, such as the number of vertices in a graph.
- 28In electronics, the highest power in the denominator of a circuit's transfer function, as for a filter or an amplifier.
- 29In group theory, the smallest positive whole number n for which combining an element with itself n times yields the group's identity element; if there is none, the order is infinite.
- 30In mathematics, a partially ordered set: a set together with a relation that ranks some, but not necessarily all, pairs of its elements.
- 31The relation that a partially ordered set carries, which ranks some pairs of its elements against each other.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
English took "order" from Middle English ordre, from Old French ordre, from Latin ōrdō (accusative ōrdinem), meaning "row, rank, regular arrangement", literally "row of threads in a loom." It traces back through Proto-Italic, probably to a Proto-Indo-European root, and has been compared with Latin ōrdior ("begin," literally "begin to weave").
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- Order derives through Middle English ordre and Old French ordre from Latin ōrdō, accusative ōrdinem, with the stated meanings and weaving explanation. en.wiktionary.org
- The ancestry passes through Proto-Italic. en.wiktionary.org
- A Proto-Indo-European root has been proposed as the ultimate origin. en.wiktionary.org
- Latin ōrdō has been compared with ōrdior. en.wiktionary.org
- Latin ōrdior means begin and, in weaving, begin to weave. en.wiktionary.org