Sequencing

How to spell sequencing

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce sequencing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does sequencing mean?

1. nounThe act of arranging things or events into a particular order.
2. nounThe process of determining the precise order of units, such as bases in DNA or amino acids in a protein.

Sequencing in a sentence

• Careful sequencing of the lessons helped the class build skills step by step.

• DNA sequencing has become far cheaper over the past decade.

• The project failed because the sequencing of the tasks was wrong.

• The lab uses genome sequencing to identify the virus strain.

Where does sequencing come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word grows from the Latin verb sequi, meaning 'to follow', whose past participle stem secut- also gives English words like 'consequence' and 'pursue'. From sequi came the noun 'sequence', borrowed through Old French and Latin in the late Middle Ages to mean a set of things following one after another in order. Adding the English '-ing' suffix turns the verb 'to sequence' into the activity noun 'sequencing', the act of putting things into an order. The spelling trap lives in the middle: the 'qu' is followed by 'en', and the soft 'c' before 'ing' is easy to drop or swap, so writers must remember it follows the parent word 'sequence' exactly, simply trading the final 'e' for '-ing'. In the twentieth century the word gained a major scientific career, describing the determination of the order of units in DNA, proteins, and other molecules.

How the word is built

• sequenc- (from Latin sequi: to follow)
• -ing (verbal noun suffix)