ETYM Old Eng. ordre, French ordre, from Latin ordo, ordinis. Related to Ordain, Ordinal.
In biological classification, a group of related families. For example, the horse, rhinoceros, and tapir families are grouped in the order Perissodactyla, the odd-toed ungulates, because they all have either one or three toes on each foot. The names of orders are not shown in italic (unlike genus and species names) and by convention they have the ending “-formes” in birds and fish; “-a” in mammals, amphibians, reptiles, and other animals; and “-ales” in fungi and plants. Related orders are grouped together in a class.
1. Putting in order; SYN. ordering.
2. A degree in a continuum of size or quantity; SYN. order of magnitude.
3. Established customary state esp. of society.
4. A commercial document used to request someone to supply something in return for payment; SYN. purchase order.
5. A body of rules followed by an assembly; SYN. rules of order, parliamentary law, parliamentary procedure.
6. (Often plural) A command given by a superior (e.g., a military or law enforcement officer) that must be obeyed.
7. (Biology) Taxonomic group containing one or more families.

1. To bring order to or into
2. To issue commands or orders for; SYN. prescribe, dictate.
3. To make a request for something
4. To place in a certain order
5. To tell somebody to do something; SYN. tell, enjoin, say.

1. In computing, the relative significance of a digit or byte. High-order refers to the most significant (usually leftmost) digit or byte; low-order refers to the least significant (usually rightmost) digit or byte.
2. The magnitude of a database in terms of the number of fields it contains.
3. The sequence in which arithmetic operations are performed.

Pattern of behavior by the members of a society that is conducive to stability and coexistence. Normally associated with some system of rules, as implied by the phrase “law and order”. Like justice, it has been one of the major concerns of political analysis, but in practice order and justice may sometimes be conflicting goals.

In classical architecture, the column (including capital, shaft, and base) and the entablature, considered as an architectural whole. The five orders are Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Tuscan, and Composite.
The earliest order was the Doric (without a base), which originated before the 5th century BC, soon followed by the Ionic (with scroll-like capitals), which was first found in Asia Minor. The Corinthian (with leaves in the capitals) dates from the end of the 5th century BC, while the Composite appears first on the arch of Titus in Rome AD 82. No Tuscan columns survive from antiquity, although the order was thought to originate in Etruscan times. The five orders were described in detail by the Italian Sebastiano Serlio in his treatise on architecture 1537–51.

To arrange in a sequence, such as alphabetic or numeric.