1. (often plural) a command given by a superior (e.g., a military or law enforcement officer) that must be obeyed
   "the British ships dropped anchor and waited for orders from London"
    
2. Logical or comprehensible arrangement of separate elements
   "we shall consider these questions in the inverse order of their presentation";
   - ordering, ordination
    
3. Established customary state (especially of society)
   "order ruled in the streets"; "law and order"
    
4. A degree in a continuum of size or quantity
   "it was on the order of a mile"; "an explosion of a low order of magnitude";
   - order of magnitude
    
5. A condition of regular or proper arrangement
   "he put his desk in order"; "the machine is now in working order";
   - orderliness
    
6. A commercial document used to request someone to supply something in return for payment and providing specifications and quantities
   "IBM received an order for a hundred computers";
   - purchase order, PO
    
7. A request for something to be made, supplied, or served
   "I gave the waiter my order"; "the company's products were in such demand that they got more orders than their call centre could handle"
    
8. (law) a legally binding command or decision entered on the court record (as if issued by a court or judge)
   "a friend in New Mexico said that the order caused no trouble out there";
   - decree, edict, fiat, rescript
    
9. A formal association of people with similar interests
   "men from the fraternal order will staff the soup kitchen today";
   - club, social club, society, guild, gild, lodge
    
10. A group of people living under a religious rule
    "the order of Saint Benedict";
    - monastic order
     
11. A body of rules followed by an assembly
    "The committee adhered strictly to the rules of order during the heated debate";
    - rules of order, parliamentary law, parliamentary procedure
     
12. (biology) taxonomic group containing one or more families
    "Primates is the order that includes humans, apes, and monkeys"
     
13. (architecture) one of original three styles of Greek architecture distinguished by the type of column and entablature used or a style developed from the original three by the Romans
    "The Parthenon is an excellent example of the Doric order"
     
14. The act of putting things in a sequential arrangement
    "there were mistakes in the order of items on the list";
    - ordering

1. Place an order for an item before it is available for purchase
   "Fans pre-ordered the new album months before its release date"

1. Give instructions to or direct somebody to do something with authority
   "She ordered him to do the shopping";
   - tell, enjoin, say
    
2. Make a request for something
   "Order me some flowers"; "order a work stoppage"
    
3. Issue commands or orders for
   "The general ordered an immediate retreat";
   - prescribe, dictate
    
4. Bring order to or into
   "Order these files"
    
5. Place in a certain order
   "order the photos chronologically"
    
6. Organize thoughts, ideas, or temporal events
   "order my schedule";
   - arrange, set up, put
    
7. Bring into conformity with rules, principles or usage; impose regulations
   "We cannot order the way people dress";
   - regulate, regularize, regularise [Brit], govern

1. An order placed for an item before it is available for purchase
   "The company received thousands of pre-orders for their latest smartphone"

Derived forms: pre-ordered, pre-orders, pre-ordering

Type of: act, arrange, arrangement, artistic style, ask for, asking, association, bespeak, bid, bidding, bring down, call for, command, commercial document, commercial instrument, condition, decide, determine, dictation, enactment, idiom, impose, inflict, magnitude, make up one's mind, obtrude, organisation [Brit], organise [Brit], organization, organize, prescript, religious order, religious sect, request, rule, sect, set up, state, status, taxon, taxonomic category, taxonomic group, visit

Antonym: disarray, disorder

Part of: class

Encyclopedia: Order, Lawfulness, Justice