Seriating

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The act of arranging or sorting items into a specific sequence or order
2. The process of categorizing elements according to a particular criterion or system
3. The method of systematically organizing or classifying objects based on their characteristics or relationships

Etymology: Seriating is the present participle of "seriate," a verb meaning to arrange things in a series or in order. Its root is the Latin "series," meaning a row, chain or succession, which comes from "serere," to join or link together. That is the same ancient verb behind words like "sermon" and "assert," which share the sense of putting things in a connected line. English took the verb from the Latin "seriatus," the past participle of the Latin verb "seriare," meaning to arrange in a sequence. Along the way, "series" entered English as a noun, and "seriate" was built from it by adding the English verb-forming suffix "-ate," which is how many scholarly verbs of this kind were made.

Synonyms: ordering, sequencing, ranking, arranging

Antonyms: randomizing, disordering