serial

[seer-ee-uh l]

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noun

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.

adjective

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.

of or relating to the apparent or actual performance of data-processing operations one at a time (distinguished from parallel).
of or relating to the transmission or processing of each part of a whole in sequence, as each bit of a byte or each byte of a computer word (distinguished from parallel).

Music. of, relating to, or composed in serial technique.

Origin of serial

From the New Latin word seriālis, dating back to 1835–45. See series, -al¹

Related formsse·ri·al·ly, adverbnon·se·ri·al, noun, adjectivenon·se·ri·al·ly, adverb

Can be confusedcereal serial

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for serially

successively, regularly, increasingly, constantly, moderately, gently, deliberately, steadily, progressively, continuously, sequentially, serially, imperceptibly, piecemeal, perceptibly, unhurriedly

Examples from the Web for serially

Contemporary Examples of serially

And so the serially unpopular Hollande was robbed of a rare break from public opprobrium.
New Phone-Tapping Scandal Plagues Sarkozy
Tracy McNicoll
March 14, 2014
Everything's serially correlated with itself and correlated every which way with everything else.
Rogoff and Reinhart Respond
Megan McArdle
April 17, 2013

Historical Examples of serially

The footnotes are serially numbered and placed at the end of each chapter.
The Mind and the Brain
Alfred Binet
In all cases these must be serially united by the connecting strand.
Evolution in Art
Alfred C. Haddon
The foot is short, and the bones of the carpus are serially arranged.
The Cambridge Natural History, Vol X., Mammalia
Frank Evers Beddard
The bones of the carpus are serially arranged and do not interlock.
The Cambridge Natural History, Vol X., Mammalia
Frank Evers Beddard
She wore them serially as they came from the row of hangers in her closet.
The Fourth R
George Oliver Smith

British Dictionary definitions for serially

serial

noun

a novel, play, etc, presented in separate instalments at regular intervals

a publication, usually regularly issued and consecutively numbered

adjective

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

Derived Formsserially, adverb

Word Origin for serial

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

1846, from serial (adj.).