Sequentia

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A series of events, happenings, or phenomena that follow one another logically
2. a succession of occurrences where each is dependent on the former
3. the act or process of carrying out actions in a consecutive manner

Etymology: Latin "sequentia" is a noun formed from "sequens," the present participle of "sequi," "to follow." Its basic sense was "a following" or "succession," which is also the root of the English "sequence" and "sequel." Medieval Latin gave the form a specialized meaning: a hymn sung in the liturgy after the Alleluia. Singers had begun adding long melodies to the final syllables of that chant, and these melodies came to be called sequentiae, or "things that follow." The sense "series of events" is the older and more general one. Speakers used the Latin form to mean any orderly run of things, one after another. Today English uses "sequence" for that idea, and "sequentia" survives mainly as a learned Latin form and in technical usage.

Synonyms: sequence, series, succession, chain, progression

Antonyms: randomness, disorder, chaos, discontinuity