order of the day
Americannoun
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the agenda for an assembly, meeting, group, or organization.
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the activity or feature of primary importance.
Good cheer and celebrations will be the order of the day.
noun
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the general directive of a commander in chief or the specific instructions of a commanding officer
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informal the prescribed or only thing offered or available
prunes were the order of the day
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(in Parliament and similar legislatures) any item of public business ordered to be considered on a specific day
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an agenda or programme
Etymology
Origin of order of the day
First recorded in 1690–1700
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
He would have been at home in Imperial or Baroque Rome, where thinking big was the order of the day; in his own time—and ours—it has been the exception.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 13, 2025
Wait-and-see remains the order of the day, he said.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 24, 2025
Massive user experience changes without opt-outs have been the order of the day for at least the better part of a decade now.
From Slate • Aug. 4, 2025
Angular riffs, clever-clever lyrics and big, hooky choruses were the order of the day.
From BBC • May 8, 2025
With the team-style research encouraged by Lawrence reaching its full flower, collaboration was the order of the day.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
