word order

American  

noun

1. the way in which words are arranged in sequence in a sentence or smaller construction.

   In Latin, word order is freer than in English.

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word order British  

noun

1. the arrangement of words in a phrase, clause, or sentence. In many languages, including English, word order plays an important part in determining meanings expressed in other languages by inflections

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Etymology

Origin of word order

First recorded in 1890–95

Example Sentences

These include word order preferences, such as whether verbs come before or after objects, and hierarchical structures, such as how grammatical relationships are marked within sentences.

From Science Daily • Apr. 5, 2026

The literary term “anastrophe” refers to the technique of reversing word order in a sentence for effect.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 20, 2023

Then, once they had decided which word order they were going to use, they started to look primarily at the character they mentioned first.

From Scientific American • Oct. 18, 2023

He and his colleagues are now testing that hypothesis with a third language—Kîîtharaka, which is spoken in Kenya—that contains a highly unusual word order, very different from that of Thai or English.

From Slate • Oct. 30, 2019

That comes in handy in implementing the two principles of composition when they would otherwise be stymied by the rigid word order of English.

From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker