series

[ seer-eez ]

See synonyms for series on Thesaurus.com

noun,plural se·ries.

a group or a number of related or similar things, events, etc., arranged or occurring in temporal, spatial, or other order or succession; sequence.
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.

a set, as of coins or stamps.
a set of successive volumes or issues of a periodical published in like form with similarity of subject or purpose.
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.
Mathematics.
- a sequence of terms combined by addition, as 1 + ½ + ¼ + ⅛ + … ½ n.
- infinite series.
Rhetoric. a succession of coordinate sentence elements.
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.
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).
Chemistry. a group of related chemical elements arranged in order of increasing atomic number: the lanthanide series.

adjective

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

Origin of series

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. 2023

How to use series in a sentence

This video is the second in our series on the 2020 election.
What long voting lines in the US really mean | Melissa Hirsch | September 17, 2020 | Vox
Facebook this morning announced a series of new rules designed to further penalize those who violate its community standards, specifically around Facebook Groups.
Facebook tries to clean up Groups with new policies | Sarah Perez | September 17, 2020 | TechCrunch
Take-Two Interactive Software had previously announced that the next entry in its NBA 2K series would retail for $70 on Xbox series X and PS5.
Sony debuts new PlayStation for the holidays. Here’s how much it costs | Verne Kopytoff | September 17, 2020 | Fortune
The exciting series, which will binge-drop in October, will use both archival footage and dramatic recreations to tell the stories of trail-blazing pioneers in the fight for LGBTQ equality.
Fall TV season brings handful of queer shows | Brian T. Carney | September 16, 2020 | Washington Blade
From there, the lower-seeded Thursday winner will head into a five-game series against the top-seeded Las Vegas Aces, while the higher-seeded Thursday winner takes on the second-seeded Seattle Storm.
It’s Win Or Go Home This Week In The WNBA Playoffs | Howard Megdal | September 15, 2020 | FiveThirtyEight

Jones is a veteran of another beloved-yet-controversial animated series on Adult Swim, The Boondocks.
‘Black Dynamite’ Presents Police Brutality: The Musical | Stereo Williams | January 9, 2015 | THE DAILY BEAST
Music is a huge part of the tone of Black Dynamite overall—going back to the original 2009 movie on which the series is based.
‘Black Dynamite’ Presents Police Brutality: The Musical | Stereo Williams | January 9, 2015 | THE DAILY BEAST
It is a spy series at its core, but you guys never really pull from the headlines.
‘Archer’ Creator Adam Reed Spills Season 6 Secrets, From Surreal Plotlines to Life Post-ISIS | Marlow Stern | January 8, 2015 | THE DAILY BEAST
French officials were already on edge after a series of apparently unconnected attacks, including the stabbing of police officers.
U.S. Spies See Al Qaeda Fingerprints on Paris Massacre | Shane Harris, Nancy A. Youssef | January 8, 2015 | THE DAILY BEAST
Petty, shade, and thirst are my favorite human “virtues” and the trifecta of any good series of “stories.”
‘Empire’ Review: Hip-Hop Musical Chairs with an Insane Soap Opera Twist | Judnick Mayard | January 8, 2015 | THE DAILY BEAST
Now recall the series in an inverse order, beginning with “Fieldhand,” and going back to “Building.”
Assimilative Memory | Marcus Dwight Larrowe (AKA Prof. A. Loisette)
An approach to æsthetic pleasure is seen in the responses to rhythmic series of sounds.
Children's Ways | James Sully
He learned the series by heart without any suspicion that he was committing it to memory.
Assimilative Memory | Marcus Dwight Larrowe (AKA Prof. A. Loisette)
Another way of learning such a series by rote, is to limit the extent of the repetitions.
Assimilative Memory | Marcus Dwight Larrowe (AKA Prof. A. Loisette)
Learning a series of words by heart by thinking of the Relations between them is wholly unlike learning it by rote.
Assimilative Memory | Marcus Dwight Larrowe (AKA Prof. A. Loisette)

British Dictionary definitions for series

series

/ (ˈsɪəriːz, -rɪz) /

nounplural -ries

a group or connected succession of similar or related things, usually arranged in order
a set of radio or television programmes having the same characters and setting but different stories

a set of books having the same format, related content, etc, published by one firm
a set of stamps, coins, etc, issued at a particular time
maths the sum of a finite or infinite sequence of numbers or quantities: See also geometric series
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)
rhetoric a succession of coordinate elements in a sentence
geology a stratigraphical unit that is a subdivision of a system and represents the rocks formed during an epoch

Origin of series

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

[ sîr′ēz ]

The sum of a sequence of terms, for example 2 + 22 + 23 + 24 + 25 + …
A group of rock formations closely related in time of origin and distinct as a group from other formations.

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