series
Pluralseries
- 1A number of things arranged or occurring in succession, or linked together in order.
Like beads strung one after another on a single thread.
This novel is the first in a series of related volumes.
A series of unexpected delays pushed the launch back by weeks.
UsageThe plural is also series: two series. Usually a series of + plural noun: a series of delays.
Similarsequence, succession, chain, string, line
Note
Things form a series because they are linked, not merely numerous, like a series of bank failures with each pulling on the next.
- 2A television or radio program made up of several episodes broadcast at regular intervals.
The crime series ran for five years before it finally ended.
The documentary series aired weekly on public radio.
UsageOften with the medium or genre: a TV series, a crime series, a documentary series.
Note
Show and program are its everyday equivalents. Series puts the stress on the episodes coming back at intervals. British usage also gives the word a narrower meaning, one block of episodes.
- 3A group of matches between two sides, where the goal is to win more matches than the opponent.
The visiting side took the series after winning the deciding match.
A best-of-seven series will decide the championship this month.
UsageNumbers go before it: a four-game series, a best-of-seven series. A team wins or takes the series.
Similarrubber
- 4In British usage, one of the groups of episodes that together make up a whole show; equivalent to a season.
The first series of the sitcom had only six episodes.
Each series of the show was filmed in a different city.
UsageOften used with a number or new: series 3, the third series, the new series.
Similarseason
Note
Here British and American usage part ways. A British viewer talks about the third series of Friends where an American would say the third season. Because the word can still name the whole run too, the context has to do the work.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Friends has a third season, making the example's reference to a third group of episodes factually valid. en.wikipedia.org
Less common meanings
- 5In mathematics, the sequence of partial sums formed by adding the terms of a given sequence one after another.
Because each term is half the one before it, the infinite series 1 + 1/2 + 1/4 + ... adds up to exactly 2.
The series diverges because its partial sums grow without bound.
Note
Mathematics keeps a strict line between a sequence and its series. The sequence is the list of terms a₁, a₂, a₃…, and the series is the running totals Sₙ = a₁ + … + aₙ. Whether a series converges depends on whether those partial sums settle toward a limit. Named series, such as the harmonic series or a geometric series, are the stock objects of the subject.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- A sequence lists terms; its associated series can be defined as the sequence of running partial sums. wwwevs.mathematik.tu-darmstadt.de
- A series converges precisely when its sequence of partial sums converges. openstax.org
- The harmonic and geometric series are standard mathematical examples. openstax.org
- 6Consonants considered together because they have a phonetic or phonological characteristic in common.
- 7In biological classification, an optional rank whose position varies by field: in botany it subdivides a genus, below section and above species; in some zoological schemes it falls between superorder and order.
- 8In the diamond trade, a parcel of rough diamonds of assorted qualities.
Practice
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Origin
Proto-Indo-European *ser- ("to put together, bind, line up") lies behind Latin serere ("to join together, bind") and seriēs, which English borrowed. The English word is recorded from the 1610s. Desert, insert, sermon, and sorcerer are related.