Sequence

How to spell sequence

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce sequence

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does sequence mean?

1. nounA set of related things arranged or following one after another in a particular order.
2. verbTo arrange items in a particular order, or to determine the order of components such as genes.

Sequence in a sentence

• noun

  The recipe lists each step in the correct sequence so nothing is missed.

• verb

  The lab can sequence a full human genome in a single day.

• noun

  The detective worked out the sequence of events on the night of the theft.

• verb

  Editors carefully sequence the chapters before the book goes to print.

Where does sequence come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb sequi, meaning 'to follow', and its derived noun sequentia, 'a following' or 'that which follows'. It first entered English in the late 1300s as a term in church music, where a 'sequence' was a hymn sung after, and therefore following, the Alleluia in the liturgy. From that narrow liturgical sense it broadened to mean any set of things arranged one after another in a connected order, the meaning most people use today. The same sequi root quietly powers a whole family of relatives, including 'sequel', 'consequence', 'subsequent' and 'pursue', so a thing that follows is hiding inside all of them. The spelling trap lives in the middle and end: the 'qu' makes a 'kw' sound and the word closes with the soft '-ence' rather than '-ance', which is exactly where careful writers slip.

How the word is built

• sequ- (from Latin sequi: to follow)
• -ence (noun-forming suffix)