Series Definition & Meaning

American

British

Scientific

Related Words

Other Word Forms

Etymology

Examples

Related Words

Synonyms 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.

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

"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 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.

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”

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

She is the latest in a series of artists who have spoken publicly about the entertainment executive in recent days.

From The Wall Street Journal

He went viral in 2015 with a series of YouTube videos titled “Here in My Garage.”

From The Wall Street Journal

The actress starred in six seasons of comedy series Schitts Creek, for which she won an Emmy for best comedy actress.

From BBC

His son said that the 20-year term was effectively a "death sentence" for his father, who is 78 and has faced a series of health problems.

From Barron's

The iconic plane manufacturer has dealt with a series of engineering problems and slowing orders, racking up billions in losses.

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

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

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.