series

American  

[seer-eez] / ˈsɪər iz /

noun

plural

series

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

2. 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.

3. a set, as of coins or stamps.

4. a set of successive volumes or issues of a periodical published in like form with similarity of subject or purpose.

5. Radio and Television.

   1. a daily or weekly program with the same cast and format and a continuing story, as a soap opera, situation comedy, or drama.

   2. a number of related programs having the same theme, cast, or format.

      a series of four programs on African wildlife.

6. Mathematics.

   1. a sequence of terms combined by addition, as 1 + ½ + ¼ + ⅛ + … ½ n.

   2. infinite series.

7. Rhetoric. a succession of coordinate sentence elements.

8. 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.

9. Electricity. an end-to-end arrangement of the components, as resistors, in a circuit so that the same current flows through each component.

10. Chemistry. a group of related chemical elements arranged in order of increasing atomic number.

    the lanthanide series.

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adjective

1. Electricity. consisting of or having component parts connected in series.

   a series circuit; a series generator.

series British  

/ ˈsɪəriːz, -rɪz /

noun

1. a group or connected succession of similar or related things, usually arranged in order

2. a set of radio or television programmes having the same characters and setting but different stories

3. a set of books having the same format, related content, etc, published by one firm

4. a set of stamps, coins, etc, issued at a particular time

5. maths the sum of a finite or infinite sequence of numbers or quantities See also geometric series

6. electronics

   1. 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 )

   2. ( as modifier ) Compare parallel

      a series circuit

7. rhetoric a succession of coordinate elements in a sentence

8. geology a stratigraphical unit that is a subdivision of a system and represents the rocks formed during an epoch

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series Scientific  

/ sîr′ēz /

1. The sum of a sequence of terms, for example 2 + 2 ² + 2 ³ + 2 ⁴ + 2 ⁵ + …

2. A group of rock formations closely related in time of origin and distinct as a group from other formations.

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Related Words

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 Word Forms

• multiseries nounmultiseries
• subseries nounsubseries
• superseries nounsuperseries

Etymology

Origin of series

First recorded in 1605–15; from Latin seriēs; akin to serere “to connect”

Explanation

The World Series consists of a series of seven games between the champions of the National and American Baseball Leagues. A series is a group of similar things happening one after the other. Your favorite TV drama that comes on week after week is a series. Each episode is one in a series of many. If you make one mistake after another as you try to make dinner, you could say that the meal arrived on the table despite a series of culinary mishaps. If you have several conversations with your parents about how late you can stay out, you might say your curfew was determined by a series of discussions.

Example Sentences

What’s the point of watching a game that can be winnowed down to a series of inputs and outputs?

From Salon • Apr. 13, 2026

The likely power shift comes a year after Carney became prime minister and follows a series of defections by opposition members of parliament to the Liberals.

From BBC • Apr. 13, 2026

“Secular growth stocks have faced a series of challenges in recent months, including expectations of economic acceleration, surging bond yields, and AI disruption risk,” they say.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 13, 2026

Audiences are drawn to the platform’s fresh and inclusive interpretations of the genre, said Jinny Howe, Netflix’s head of scripted series for the U.S. and Canada.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 13, 2026

But stamped across the top half of the card is a series of swirly lines, a round seal, and a five-digit number.

From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller

Related Words

• array
• course
• list
• run
• sequence
• set
• streak
• string