Ordering

How to spell ordering

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce ordering

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does ordering mean?

1. verbRequesting that goods, food, or a service be supplied.
2. nounThe way in which a set of things is arranged or sequenced.
3. verbGiving an authoritative instruction or command.

Ordering in a sentence

• verb

  She is ordering a new laptop from the company website.

• noun

  The ordering of the chapters makes the argument easy to follow.

• verb

  The manager was ordering everyone back to their desks.

• verb

  We kept ordering coffee long after the meeting ended.

• noun

  A clear ordering of tasks helped the team finish on schedule.

• verb

  The court is ordering the company to pay full compensation.

Where does ordering come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word grows out of the Latin noun ordo, which literally meant a row, a rank, or a regular arrangement, such as the threads lined up on a weaver's loom or soldiers drawn up in formation. Latin passed it into Old French as ordre, and English borrowed it in the 1200s, at first meaning a fixed sequence or a religious rank. From the noun came the verb 'to order', which carried two strands of meaning that survive today: to put things into a proper sequence, and to issue an instruction, which later softened into the everyday sense of requesting goods. Adding the present participle ending '-ing' simply turns that verb into the form used for ongoing action or as a noun for the act itself. The single 'r' before the '-ing' (not a doubled one) is the small spelling point worth noting, since the stress sits on the first syllable and the final 'r' is not doubled.

How the word is built

• ord- (from Latin ordo: row, rank, arrangement)
• -er (forming the verb 'order')
• -ing (present participle / gerund)