serial
[seer-ee-uh l]
- anything published, broadcast, etc., in short installments at regular intervals, as a novel appearing in successive issues of a magazine.
- Library Science. a publication in any medium issued in successive parts bearing numerical or chronological designation and intended to be continued indefinitely.
- published in installments or successive parts: a serial story.
- pertaining to such publication.
- pertaining to, arranged in, or consisting of a series.
- occurring in a series rather than simultaneously: serial marriage; serial murders.
- effecting or producing a series of similar actions: The police think a serial killer is responsible for five homicides in this city last month.
- Computers.
- Music. of, relating to, or composed in serial technique.
Origin of serial
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for serially
Contemporary Examples
And so the serially unpopular Hollande was robbed of a rare break from public opprobrium.
Everything's serially correlated with itself and correlated every which way with everything else.
Historical Examples
The footnotes are serially numbered and placed at the end of each chapter.
The Mind and the BrainAlfred Binet
In all cases these must be serially united by the connecting strand.
Evolution in ArtAlfred C. Haddon
The foot is short, and the bones of the carpus are serially arranged.
The Cambridge Natural History, Vol X., MammaliaFrank Evers Beddard
The bones of the carpus are serially arranged and do not interlock.
The Cambridge Natural History, Vol X., MammaliaFrank Evers Beddard
She wore them serially as they came from the row of hangers in her closet.
The Fourth RGeorge Oliver Smith
serial
- a novel, play, etc, presented in separate instalments at regular intervals
- a publication, usually regularly issued and consecutively numbered
- of, relating to, or resembling a series
- published or presented as a serial
- of or relating to such publication or presentation
- computing of or operating on items of information, instructions, etc, in the order in which they occurCompare parallel (def. 5)
- of, relating to, or using the techniques of serialism
- logic maths (of a relation) connected, transitive, and asymmetric, thereby imposing an order on all the members of the domain, as less than on the natural numbersSee also ordering
Word Origin
C19: from New Latin seriālis, from Latin seriēs series
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
Word Origin and History for serially
serial
adj.
"coming in regular succession," 1840, from series + -al (1); popularized in reference to Dickens' novels, published one part at a time in periodicals (as opposed to all at once in a book). Found to be a useful word and given wide application. Serial number, indicating position in a series, first recorded 1866, originally of papers, packages, etc.; of soldiers from 1918. Serial killer is first attested 1981 (in relation to John Wayne Gacy and Ted Bundy), though serial had been used in connection with murders since the early 1960s. Related: Serially.
serial
n.
1846, from serial (adj.).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper