Definition of order

• n. - Regular arrangement; any methodical or established succession or harmonious relation; method; system
• n. - Of material things, like the books in a library.
• n. - Of intellectual notions or ideas, like the topics of a discource.
• n. - Of periods of time or occurrences, and the like.
• n. - Right arrangement; a normal, correct, or fit condition; as, the house is in order; the machinery is out of order.
• n. - The customary mode of procedure; established system, as in the conduct of debates or the transaction of business; usage; custom; fashion.
• n. - Conformity with law or decorum; freedom from disturbance; general tranquillity; public quiet; as, to preserve order in a community or an assembly.
• n. - That which prescribes a method of procedure; a rule or regulation made by competent authority; as, the rules and orders of the senate.
• n. - A command; a mandate; a precept; a direction.
• n. - Hence: A commission to purchase, sell, or supply goods; a direction, in writing, to pay money, to furnish supplies, to admit to a building, a place of entertainment, or the like; as, orders for blankets are large.
• n. - 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 group or division of men in the same social or other position; also, a distinct character, kind, or sort; as, the higher or lower orders of society; talent of a high order.
• n. - A body of persons having some common honorary distinction or rule of obligation; esp., a body of religious persons or aggregate of convents living under a common rule; as, the Order of the Bath; the Franciscan order.
• n. - An ecclesiastical grade or rank, as of deacon, priest, or bishop; the office of the Christian ministry; -- often used in the plural; as, to take orders, or to take holy orders, that is, to enter some grade of the ministry.
• n. - The disposition of a column and its component parts, and of the entablature resting upon it, in classical architecture; hence (as the column and entablature are the characteristic features of classical architecture) a style or manner of architectural designing.
• n. - An assemblage of genera having certain important characters in common; as, the Carnivora and Insectivora are orders of Mammalia.
• n. - The placing of words and members in a sentence in such a manner as to contribute to force and beauty or clearness of expression.
• n. - Rank; degree; thus, the order of a curve or surface is the same as the degree of its equation.
• n. - To put in order; to reduce to a methodical arrangement; to arrange in a series, or with reference to an end. Hence, to regulate; to dispose; to direct; to rule.
• n. - To give an order to; to command; as, to order troops to advance.
• n. - To give an order for; to secure by an order; as, to order a carriage; to order groceries.
• n. - To admit to holy orders; to ordain; to receive into the ranks of the ministry.
• v. i. - To give orders; to issue commands.