series

[ seer-eez ]
See synonyms for series on Thesaurus.com
noun,plural se·ries.
  1. a group or a number of related or similar things, events, etc., arranged or occurring in temporal, spatial, or other order or succession; sequence.

  2. a number of games, contests, or sporting events, with the same participants, considered as a unit: The two baseball clubs played a five-game series.

  1. a set, as of coins or stamps.

  2. a set of successive volumes or issues of a periodical published in like form with similarity of subject or purpose.

  3. Radio and Television.

    • a daily or weekly program with the same cast and format and a continuing story, as a soap opera, situation comedy, or drama.

    • a number of related programs having the same theme, cast, or format: a series of four programs on African wildlife.

  4. Mathematics.

    • a sequence of terms combined by addition, as 1 + ½ + ¼ + ⅛ + … ½ n.

  5. Rhetoric. a succession of coordinate sentence elements.

  6. Geology. a division of stratified rocks that is of next higher rank to a stage and next lower rank to a system, comprising deposits formed during part of a geological epoch.

  7. Electricity. an end-to-end arrangement of the components, as resistors, in a circuit so that the same current flows through each component.: Compare parallel (def. 14).

  8. Chemistry. a group of related chemical elements arranged in order of increasing atomic number: the lanthanide series.

adjective
  1. Electricity. consisting of or having component parts connected in series: a series circuit; a series generator.

Origin of series

1
First recorded in 1605–15; from Latin seriēs; akin to serere “to connect”

synonym study For series

1. Series, sequence, succession are terms for an orderly following of things one after another. Series is applied to a number of things of the same kind, usually related to each other, arranged or happening in order: a series of baseball games. Sequence stresses the continuity in time, thought, cause and effect, etc.: The scenes came in a definite sequence. Succession implies that one thing is followed by another or others in turn, usually though not necessarily with a relation or connection between them: succession to a throne; a succession of calamities.

Other words from series

  • mul·ti·se·ries, noun, plural mul·ti·se·ries.
  • sub·se·ries, noun, plural sub·se·ries.
  • su·per·se·ries, noun, plural su·per·se·ries.

Words Nearby series

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use series in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for series

series

/ (ˈsɪəriːz, -rɪz) /


nounplural -ries
  1. a group or connected succession of similar or related things, usually arranged in order

  2. a set of radio or television programmes having the same characters and setting but different stories

  1. a set of books having the same format, related content, etc, published by one firm

  2. a set of stamps, coins, etc, issued at a particular time

  3. maths the sum of a finite or infinite sequence of numbers or quantities: See also geometric series

  4. electronics

    • a configuration of two or more components connected in a circuit so that the same current flows in turn through each of them (esp in the phrase in series)

    • (as modifier): a series circuit Compare parallel (def. 10)

  5. rhetoric a succession of coordinate elements in a sentence

  6. geology a stratigraphical unit that is a subdivision of a system and represents the rocks formed during an epoch

Origin of series

1
C17: from Latin: a row, from serere to link

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for series

series

[ sîrēz ]


  1. The sum of a sequence of terms, for example 2 + 22 + 23 + 24 + 25 + …

  2. A group of rock formations closely related in time of origin and distinct as a group from other formations.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.