- (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.) 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.) Regular arrangement; any methodical or established succession or harmonious relation; method; system.
- (n.) Conformity with law or decorum; freedom from disturbance; general tranquillity; public quiet; as, to preserve order in a community or an assembly.
- (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.) To admit to holy orders; to ordain; to receive into the ranks of the ministry.
- (n.) To give an order to; to command; as, to order troops to advance.
- (n.) Of intellectual notions or ideas, like the topics of a discource.
- (n.) A body of persons having some common honorary distinction or rule of obligation; especially, 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 assemblage of genera having certain important characters in common; as, the Carnivora and Insectivora are orders of Mammalia.
- (n.) Right arrangement; a normal, correct or fit condition; as, the house is in order; the machinery is out of order.
- (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.) That which prescribes a method of procedure; a rule or regulation made by competent authority; as, the rules and orders of the senate.
- (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.) The placing of words and members in a sentence in such a manner as to contribute to force and beauty or clearness of expression.
- (v.i.) To give orders; to issue commands.
- (n.) A command; a mandate; a precept; a direction.
- (n.) Of material things, like the books in a library.
- (n.) The customary mode of procedure; established system, as in the conduct of debates or the transaction of business; usage; custom; fashion.
- (n.) Rank; degree; thus, the order of a curve or surface is the same as the degree of its equation.
- (n.) Of periods of time or occurrences, and the like.
- (n.) To give an order for; to secure by an order; as, to order a carriage; to order groceries.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
| APA | Webster's. (2011). order. Retrieved September 20, 2026, from http://smartdefine.org/order/definitions/2039309 |
| Chicago | Webster's. 2011. "order" http://smartdefine.org/order/definitions/2039309 (accessed September 20, 2026). |
| Harvard | Webster's 2011, order, Smart Define, viewed 20 September, 2026, <http://smartdefine.org/order/definitions/2039309>. |
| MLA | Webster's. "order" 27 May 2011. Web. 20 September 2026. <http://smartdefine.org/order/definitions/2039309> |