serial

[ seer-ee-uhl ]

/ ˈsɪər i əl /

See synonyms for: serial / serials / serially on Thesaurus.com

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.

QUIZZES

THIS PSAT VOCABULARY QUIZ IS PERFECT PRACTICE FOR THE REAL TEST

In our third teacher-created PSAT practice test there are new and unique vocabulary terms you may have never heard of! Can you guess what they mean?

Question 1 of 10

seclusion

a false belief or opinion.

the matter that settles to the bottom of a liquid.

the state of being isolated, kept apart, or withdrawn into solitude.

TAKE THE QUIZ TO FIND OUT

Origin of serial

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

OTHER WORDS FROM serial

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

WORDS THAT MAY BE CONFUSED WITH serial

cereal, serial

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2021

Example sentences from the Web for serial

They are once again an unlikely perfect pair in this intricate puzzler about Sam Tabor, an addled Brooklyn outsider artist who hires Smith, surprisingly, to prove he’s a serial killer.
Love suspense? Here are 5 new thrillers that will have you on the edge of your seat.|Richard Lipez|November 30, 2020|Washington Post
Goshen is a serial entrepreneur as well as a veteran of the Israeli Defense Forces’ Unit 8200, the main signals intelligence division of the Israeli military.
Startup cofounded by A.I. heavy hitters debuts editing tool it hopes will ‘transform writing’|Jeremy Kahn|October 27, 2020|Fortune
Carlino’s father, who began modestly as a florist in Philadelphia, was a serial entrepreneur who sent his son to central Pennsylvania to oversee some of the family businesses, including the racetrack.
Valuation: Casino stocks got clobbered by COVID-19. This one is now an attractive bet|matthewheimer|October 18, 2020|Fortune
Mason was an aspiring model and serial entrepreneur who sold homemade wooden crosses door-to-door as a child and graduated to selling gloves for gamers in high school, Mason had moved to New York when he was signed to Ford Models.
PearPop lets TikTok celebrities monetize by sharing shoutouts and screentime with fans|Jonathan Shieber|October 16, 2020|TechCrunch

Since Brazilian blood banks retain samples of donated blood, they were able to go back and look for coronavirus antibodies at several points in time—a technique known as serial sampling.
A city in Brazil where covid-19 ran amok may be a ‘sentinel’ for the rest of the world|Amy Nordrum|September 22, 2020|MIT Technology Review
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|DAILY BEAST
Everything's serially correlated with itself and correlated every which way with everything else.
Rogoff and Reinhart Respond|Megan McArdle|April 17, 2013|DAILY BEAST
These are numbered, apart from the eight Guard regiments and the Bavarians, serially throughout the army.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 11, Slice 7|Various
It encouraged a habit of thought that divided experience into specialized units and organized these serially and causally.
The Civilization of Illiteracy|Mihai Nadin
The bones of the carpus are serially arranged and do not interlock.
The Cambridge Natural History, Vol X., Mammalia|Frank Evers Beddard
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

British Dictionary definitions for serial

serial

/ (ˈsɪərɪəl) /

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 forms of serial

serially, 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

MEANINGS

WORD GAMES

LEARN

WRITING

WORD OF THE DAY

serial

noun

adjective

QUIZZES

THIS PSAT VOCABULARY QUIZ IS PERFECT PRACTICE FOR THE REAL TEST

Origin of serial

OTHER WORDS FROM serial

WORDS THAT MAY BE CONFUSED WITH serial

Example sentences from the Web for serial

British Dictionary definitions for serial

noun

adjective

Derived forms of serial

Word Origin for serial

MEANINGS

WORD GAMES

LEARN

WRITING

WORD OF THE DAY

serial

noun

adjective

QUIZZES

THIS PSAT VOCABULARY QUIZ IS PERFECT PRACTICE FOR THE REAL TEST

Origin of serial

OTHER WORDS FROM serial

WORDS THAT MAY BE CONFUSED WITH serial

Words related to serial

Example sentences from the Web for serial

British Dictionary definitions for serial

noun

adjective

Derived forms of serial

Word Origin for serial