# order

Pronunciation: US say "OR-dur" /ˈɔɹ.dɚ/; UK/AUS say "AW-duh" /ˈɔː.də/

## Verb

1. To request a product or service, or to secure it by placing a request to buy or supply.
   - Simple: To ask a business to make, sell, or send you something.
   - _The company ordered new equipment for the warehouse._
   - _She wants to order a custom cake for the party._
3. To issue a command to someone; to direct or charge a person to act.
   - Simple: To tell someone firmly that they must do something.
   - _The general ordered the troops to advance at dawn._
   - _Officials may order residents to evacuate before a storm._
15. To arrange things in a sequence or put them into proper order.
   - Simple: To put things in a line or a sensible arrangement.
   - _The software lets users order results by price or rating._
   - _She ordered the chapters to follow the story's timeline._

## Noun

2. A 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'.
   - Simple: A request asking a business to make, sell, or send you something, or the things you asked for.
   - _The factory received a large order for replacement parts._
   - _She canceled the customer's order after the payment failed._
4. An authoritative instruction or command that is expected to be obeyed.
   - Simple: A clear instruction telling someone what they must do.
   - _The captain's order sent the crew scrambling to their stations._
   - _Troops are trained to carry out every order immediately._
5. The arrangement or sequence in which things are placed, or a thing's position within it.
   - Simple: The way things are arranged one after another, or where one thing comes in that line.
   - _She rearranged the photos in chronological order._
   - _The recipe steps must be followed in the correct order._
6. The condition of being neatly and properly arranged.
   - Simple: When everything is neat and in its proper place.
   - _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._
7. A condition of public calm in which laws and decorum are observed and disturbance is absent.
   - Simple: A calm, peaceful state where people obey the law and behave well.
   - _The new mayor promised to restore order to the troubled city._
   - _Soldiers were sent in to maintain order after the riots._
14. The state that something is in, particularly whether a machine or device functions as it should, as in the phrase in working order.
   - Simple: The state something is in, especially whether a machine or tool works the way it should.
   - _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._
8. The overall arrangement of a society, a government, or a group of countries during a given period, considered as a single system.
   - Simple: How a society, government, or group of countries is set up and run at one time, as one whole 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._
9. A 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.
   - Simple: A special honor given by a country, royal family, or church for great service.
   - _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._
10. A community of religious adherents, especially monks or nuns, set apart by adherence to a particular rule or set of principles.
   - Simple: A group of monks, nuns, or other religious people who live by the same rules.
   - _He entered a contemplative order devoted to prayer and silence._
   - _The order has maintained the same daily routine for centuries._
11. A category in the classification of living things, ranking below class and above family.
   - Simple: A large group used to sort living things, bigger than a family but smaller than a class.
   - _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._
16. A written instruction directing someone to pay out money or deliver property to a named party.
   - Simple: A written note telling someone to pay out money or hand over property.
   - _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._
12. A rank, grade, or row of things or persons in relative position (especially a class in society) or a distinct kind or sort.
   - Simple: A rank or class of people in society, or a type or kind of thing.
   - _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._
17. The approximate scale of something: its size or scope, often expressed in factors of ten.
   - Simple: A rough measure of how big or wide-reaching something is.
   - _The total damage was on the order of several million dollars._
   - _The new telescope improves resolution by an order of magnitude._
18. A body of people united by shared interests, aims, or beliefs.
   - Simple: A group of people who share the same interests 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._
19. An association of knights, typically formed as a chivalric or honorary body.
   - Simple: A group of knights joined together, often to honor service or bravery.
   - _Only nobles who had proven themselves in battle could enter the order._
   - _The medieval order maintained its own castles and hospitals across the kingdom._
20. A portion of one dish or food item that a customer buys at a restaurant or food stand. *(US)*
   - Simple: One serving of a food that you buy 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._
13. The sequence in which a team's players take their turns to bat, as in cricket or baseball.
   - Simple: The list that shows which players bat first, second, and so on.
   - _The selectors finalized the order before the first ball was bowled._
   - _Moving up the order gave the young player more time at the crease._
21. A rank or position within the church, usually conferred for the sake of ministry; in the plural, holy orders.
   - Simple: A rank in the church given to someone so they can serve as a minister.
   - _She was raised to the order of priest after a year as a deacon._
   - _Entry into holy orders required the bishop's formal approval._
22. In classical architecture, the arrangement of a column with its parts and the entablature above it; hence, a style or manner of architectural design.
   - Simple: In old Greek and Roman building, a set style for a column and the parts above it.
   - _The portico follows the Corinthian order, with its richly carved capitals._
   - _Each classical order carries its own rules of proportion and ornament._
23. The settled rules and procedures for running a meeting, debate, or legislature, together with the practice of following them.
   - Simple: The agreed rules for how a meeting, debate, or group of lawmakers is run, and 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._

## Other meanings

- (verb) To admit a person to holy orders; to ordain someone into the ranks of the ministry.
- (noun) In algebra, the highest power of the variable in an expression, or the sum of the exponents in a single term.
- (noun) In chemistry, the overall power of a reaction's rate law, expressed in terms of the concentrations of its reactants and products.
- (noun) In mathematics, the number of elements in a set or other object, such as the number of vertices in a graph.
- (noun) In electronics, the highest power in the denominator of a circuit's transfer function, as for a filter or an amplifier.
- (noun) In 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.
- (noun) In mathematics, a partially ordered set: a set together with a relation that ranks some, but not necessarily all, pairs of its elements.
- (noun) The relation that a partially ordered set carries, which ranks some pairs of its elements against each other.

## 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").

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/order (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).