Order vs. Regularity — What's the Difference?
Edited by Tayyaba Rehman — By Urooj Arif — Updated on May 5, 2024
Order involves systematic arrangements and sequences, often imposed, while regularity refers to the natural or inherent patterns observed consistently.
Difference Between Order and Regularity
Table of Contents
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Key Differences
Order implies a structured or arranged sequence that can be determined or imposed by external factors. It often involves organizing elements in a systematic way to achieve efficiency or harmony. Regularity, on the other hand, emphasizes the occurrence of consistent patterns over time, often naturally or inherently without deliberate intervention.
While order is commonly associated with rules or commands that dictate the arrangement of components, regularity describes a predictable repetition that emerges without explicit instructions. This makes regularity a concept frequently observed in natural phenomena.
In contexts such as societal systems, order is crucial for maintaining control and preventing chaos through laws and governance. Whereas regularity in such systems might refer to the typical behaviors or routines that occur naturally among individuals.
In the physical sciences, order is often achieved through external controls or conditions applied to systems, like the crystalline order in solids. Regularity, however, is observed as inherent patterns like the orbits of planets or the periodicity of chemical elements.
While order can be disrupted by changes in the conditions that maintain it, regularity tends to persist unless there is a fundamental change in the underlying principles or systems. This resilience of regularity makes it a key concept in studying natural cycles and systems.
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Comparison Chart
Definition
Arrangement or organization according to systematic principles.
Consistent or repeated patterns that occur naturally.
Origin
Imposed by external control or internal rules.
Arises naturally or inherently within systems.
Example in Society
Laws and organizational rules that structure behavior.
Daily routines or seasonal patterns followed by communities.
Example in Science
Crystal structures in materials science.
Planetary orbits or the regular sequence of DNA bases.
Changeability
Can be easily altered or disrupted by changing the rules or system.
Generally persistent unless fundamental principles change.
Compare with Definitions
Order
A specific direction or command.
The officer gave the order to advance.
Regularity
Usual or typical state or condition.
Her calm was part of her regularity, rarely disrupted by stress.
Order
A condition of logical or comprehensible arrangement among separate elements.
She maintained order in the classroom by setting clear rules.
Regularity
The quality of being regular or symmetrical.
The garden was admired for the regularity of its layout.
Order
An established method or system.
The company's filing order made it easy to retrieve information.
Regularity
Conformance to a pattern or standard.
His punctuality showed a high level of regularity.
Order
Arrangement or sequence determined by systematic planning.
The library books were kept in order with a meticulous cataloging system.
Regularity
Frequency of occurrence at uniform intervals.
The regularity of the bus schedule made commuting easy.
Order
A state in which laws and rules are observed, and authority is obeyed.
The new mayor restored order in the city after the disturbances.
Regularity
Reliability in consistency or performance.
Regularity in attendance is expected in this course.
Order
The arrangement or disposition of people or things in relation to each other according to a particular sequence, pattern, or method
I filed the cards in alphabetical order
Regularity
Customary, usual, or normal
The train's regular schedule.
Order
An authoritative command or instruction
He was not going to take orders from a mere administrator
The skipper gave the order to abandon ship
Regularity
Orderly, even, or symmetrical
Regular teeth.
Order
A particular social, political, or economic system
They were dedicated to overthrowing the established order
Regularity
In conformity with a fixed procedure, principle, or discipline.
Order
A society of monks, nuns, or friars living under the same religious, moral, and social regulations and discipline
The Franciscan Order
Regularity
Well-ordered; methodical
Regular habits.
Order
The quality or nature of something
Poetry of the highest order
Regularity
Occurring at fixed intervals; periodic
Regular payments.
Order
A principal taxonomic category that ranks below class and above family
The higher orders of insects
Regularity
Having bowel movements or menstrual periods with normal frequency.
Order
Any of the five classical styles of architecture (Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Tuscan, and Composite) based on the proportions of columns and the style of their decoration.
Regularity
Not varying; constant.
Order
Equipment or uniform for a specified purpose or of a specified type
The platoon changed from drill order into PT kit
Regularity
Formally correct; proper.
Order
The degree of complexity of an equation, expression, etc., as denoted by an ordinal number.
Regularity
Having the required qualifications for an occupation
Not a regular lawyer.
Order
Give an authoritative instruction to do something
The judge ordered a retrial
She ordered me to leave
‘Stop frowning,’ he ordered
He ordered that the ship be abandoned
Regularity
(Informal) Complete; thorough
A regular scoundrel.
Order
Request (something) to be made, supplied, or served
My mate ordered the tickets last week
I asked the security guard to order me a taxi
Are you ready to order, sir?
Regularity
(Informal) Good; nice
A regular guy.
Order
Arrange (something) in a methodical way
Her normally well-ordered life
All entries are ordered by date
Regularity
(Botany) Having symmetrically arranged parts of similar size and shape
Regular flowers.
Order
A condition of logical or comprehensible arrangement among the separate elements of a group.
Regularity
(Grammar) Conforming to the usual pattern of inflection, derivation, or word formation.
Order
A condition of methodical or prescribed arrangement among component parts such that proper functioning or appearance is achieved
Checked to see that the shipping department was in order.
Regularity
(Ecclesiastical) Belonging to a religious order and bound by its rules
The regular clergy.
Order
Condition or state in general
The escalator is in good working order.
Regularity
Having equal sides and equal angles. Used of polygons.
Order
The established system of social organization
"Every revolution exaggerates the evils of the old order" (C. Wright Mills).
Regularity
Having faces that are congruent regular polygons and congruent polyhedral angles. Used of polyhedrons.
Order
A condition in which freedom from disorder or disruption is maintained through respect for established authority
Finally restored order in the rebellious provinces.
Regularity
Belonging to or constituting the permanent army of a nation.
Order
A sequence or arrangement of successive things
Changed the order of the files.
Regularity
(Ecclesiastical) A member of the clergy or of a religious order.
Order
The prescribed form or customary procedure, as in a meeting or court of law
The bailiff called the court to order.
Regularity
A soldier belonging to a regular army.
Order
An authoritative indication to be obeyed; a command or direction.
Regularity
A dependable loyal person
One of the party regulars.
Order
A command given by a superior military officer requiring obedience, as in the execution of a task.
Regularity
A clothing size designed for persons of average height.
Order
Orders Formal written instructions to report for military duty at a specified time and place.
Regularity
A habitual customer.
Order
A commission or instruction to buy, sell, or supply something.
Regularity
(uncountable) The condition or quality of being regular
I have been watching that show with regularity.
Order
That which is supplied, bought, or sold.
Regularity
(countable) A particular regular occurrence
Order
A request made by a customer at a restaurant for a portion of food.
Regularity
The condition or quality of being regular; as, regularity of outline; the regularity of motion.
Order
The food requested.
Regularity
A property of polygons: the property of having equal sides and equal angles
Order
(Law) A directive or command of a court.
Regularity
The quality of being characterized by a fixed principle or rate;
He was famous for the regularity of his habits
Order
Any of several grades of the Christian ministry
The order of priesthood.
Order
Often orders The rank of an ordained Christian minister or priest.
Order
Often orders The sacrament or rite of ordination.
Order
Any of the nine grades or choirs of angels.
Order
A group of persons living under a religious rule
Order of Saint Benedict.
Order
An organization of people united by a common fraternal bond or social aim.
Order
A group of people upon whom a government or sovereign has formally conferred honor for unusual service or merit, entitling them to wear a special insignia
The Order of the Garter.
Order
The insignia worn by such people.
Order
Often orders A social class
The lower orders.
Order
A class defined by the common attributes of its members; a kind.
Order
Degree of quality or importance; rank
Poetry of a high order.
Order
Any of several styles of classical architecture characterized by the type of column and entablature employed. Of the five generally accepted classical orders, the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders are Greek and the Tuscan and Composite orders are Roman.
Order
A style of building
A cathedral of the Gothic order.
Order
(Biology) A taxonomic category of organisms ranking above a family and below a class.
Order
The sum of the exponents to which the variables in a term are raised; degree.
Order
An indicated number of successive differentiations to be performed.
Order
The number of elements in a finite group.
Order
The number of rows or columns in a determinant or matrix.
Order
To issue a command or instruction to
Ordered the sailors to stow their gear.
Order
To direct to proceed as specified
Ordered the intruders off the property.
Order
To give a command or instruction for
The judge ordered a recount of the ballots.
Order
To request to be supplied with
Order eggs and bacon for breakfast.
Order
To put into a methodical, systematic arrangement
Ordered the books on the shelf.
Order
To predestine; ordain.
Order
To give an order or orders; request that something be done or supplied.
Order
(countable) Arrangement, disposition, or sequence.
Put the children in age order
It's arranged in order of frequency
Order
(countable) A position in an arrangement, disposition, or sequence.
Order
(uncountable) The state of being well arranged.
The house is in order; the machinery is out of order.
Order
(countable) Conformity with law or decorum; freedom from disturbance; general tranquillity; public quiet.
To preserve order in a community or an assembly
Order in the court!
Order
(countable) A command.
Give an order
His inability to follow orders
Order
(countable) A request for some product or service; a commission to purchase, sell, or supply goods.
Make an order
Receive an online order for the new range of sunglasses
Order
(countable) A group of religious adherents, especially monks or nuns, set apart within their religion by adherence to a particular rule or set of principles.
St. Ignatius Loyola founded the Jesuit order in 1537.
Order
(countable) An association of knights.
The Order of the Garter, the Order of the Bath.
Order
Any group of people with common interests.
Order
(countable) A decoration, awarded by a government, a dynastic house, or a religious body to an individual, usually for distinguished service to a nation or to humanity.
Order
A category in the classification of organisms, ranking below class and above family; a taxon at that rank.
The magnolia and nutmeg families belong to the order Magnoliales.
Order
A number of things or persons arranged in a fixed or suitable place, or relative position; a rank; a row; a grade; especially, a rank or class in society; a distinct character, kind, or sort.
The higher or lower orders of society
Talent of a high order
Order
(Christianity) An ecclesiastical rank or position, usually for the sake of ministry, when plural holy orders.
There have been many major and minor orders in the history of Christianity: the order of virgins, of deacons, priests, lectors, acolytes, porters, catechists, widows, etc.
To take orders or holy orders means to be ordained a deacon or priest
Order
(architecture) The disposition of a column and its component parts, and of the entablature resting upon it, in classical architecture; hence (since the column and entablature are the characteristic features of classical architecture) a style or manner of architectural design.
Order
(cricket) The sequence in which a side’s batsmen bat; the batting order.
Order
(electronics) A power of polynomial function in an electronic circuit’s block, such as a filter, an amplifier, etc.
A 3-stage cascade of a 2nd-order bandpass Butterworth filter
Order
(chemistry) The overall power of the rate law of a chemical reaction, expressed as a polynomial function of concentrations of reactants and products.
Order
(set theory) The cardinality, or number of elements in a set, group, or other structure regardable as a set.
Order
For given group G and element g ∈ G, the smallest positive natural number n, if it exists, such that (using multiplicative notation), gn = e, where e is the identity element of G; if no such number exists, the element is said to be of infinite order (or sometimes zero order).
Order
(graph theory) The number of vertices in a graph.
Order
(order theory) A partially ordered set.
Order
(order theory) The relation on a partially ordered set that determines that it is, in fact, a partially ordered set.
Order
(algebra) The sum of the exponents on the variables in a monomial, or the highest such among all monomials in a polynomial.
A quadratic polynomial, is said to be of order (or degree) 2.
Order
(finance) A written direction to furnish someone with money or property; compare money order, postal order.
Order
(transitive) To set in some sort of order.
We need to order them alphabetically.
Order
(transitive) To arrange, set in proper order.
The books in the shelf need ordering.
Order
(transitive) To issue a command to.
To order troops to advance
He ordered me to leave.
I hate being ordered around by my co-workers.
Order
(transitive) To request some product or service; to secure by placing an order.
You can now order most products to be delivered to your home.
To order groceries
To order food from a restaurant
Order
To admit to holy orders; to ordain; to receive into the ranks of the ministry.
Order
Regular arrangement; any methodical or established succession or harmonious relation; method; system
The side chambers were . . . thirty in order.
Bright-harnessed angels sit in order serviceable.
Good order is the foundation of all good things.
Order
Right arrangement; a normal, correct, or fit condition; as, the house is in order; the machinery is out of order.
Order
The customary mode of procedure; established system, as in the conduct of debates or the transaction of business; usage; custom; fashion.
And, pregnant with his grander thought,Brought the old order into doubt.
Order
Conformity with law or decorum; freedom from disturbance; general tranquillity; public quiet; as, to preserve order in a community or an assembly.
Order
That which prescribes a method of procedure; a rule or regulation made by competent authority; as, the rules and orders of the senate.
The church hath authority to establish that for an order at one time which at another time it may abolish.
Order
A command; a mandate; a precept; a direction.
Upon this new fright, an order was made by both houses for disarming all the papists in England.
Order
Hence: A commission to purchase, sell, or supply goods; a direction, in writing, to pay money, to furnish supplies, to admit to a building, a place of entertainment, or the like; as, orders for blankets are large.
In those days were pit orders - beshrew the uncomfortable manager who abolished them.
Order
A number of things or persons arranged in a fixed or suitable place, or relative position; a rank; a row; a grade; especially, a rank or class in society; a group or division of men in the same social or other position; also, a distinct character, kind, or sort; as, the higher or lower orders of society; talent of a high order.
They are in equal order to their several ends.
Various orders various ensigns bear.
Which, to his order of mind, must have seemed little short of crime.
Order
A body of persons having some common honorary distinction or rule of obligation; esp., a body of religious persons or aggregate of convents living under a common rule; as, the Order of the Bath; the Franciscan order.
Find a barefoot brother out,One of our order, to associate me.
The venerable order of the Knights Templars.
Order
An ecclesiastical grade or rank, as of deacon, priest, or bishop; the office of the Christian ministry; - often used in the plural; as, to take orders, or to take holy orders, that is, to enter some grade of the ministry.
Order
The disposition of a column and its component parts, and of the entablature resting upon it, in classical architecture; hence (as the column and entablature are the characteristic features of classical architecture) a style or manner of architectural designing.
Order
An assemblage of genera having certain important characters in common; as, the Carnivora and Insectivora are orders of Mammalia.
Order
The placing of words and members in a sentence in such a manner as to contribute to force and beauty or clearness of expression.
Order
Rank; degree; thus, the order of a curve or surface is the same as the degree of its equation.
Whiles I take order for mine own affairs.
Order
To put in order; to reduce to a methodical arrangement; to arrange in a series, or with reference to an end. Hence, to regulate; to dispose; to direct; to rule.
To him that ordereth his conversation aright.
Warriors old with ordered spear and shield.
Order
To give an order to; to command; as, to order troops to advance.
Order
To give an order for; to secure by an order; as, to order a carriage; to order groceries.
Order
To admit to holy orders; to ordain; to receive into the ranks of the ministry.
These ordered folk be especially titled to God.
Persons presented to be ordered deacons.
Order
To give orders; to issue commands.
Order
(often plural) a command given by a superior (e.g., a military or law enforcement officer) that must be obeyed;
The British ships dropped anchor and waited for orders from London
Order
A degree in a continuum of size or quantity;
It was on the order of a mile
An explosion of a low order of magnitude
Order
Established customary state (especially of society);
Order ruled in the streets
Law and order
Order
Logical or comprehensible arrangement of separate elements;
We shall consider these questions in the inverse order of their presentation
Order
A condition of regular or proper arrangement;
He put his desk in order
The machine is now in working order
Order
A legally binding command or decision entered on the court record (as if issued by a court or judge);
A friend in New Mexico said that the order caused no trouble out there
Order
A commercial document used to request someone to supply something in return for payment and providing specifications and quantities;
IBM received an order for a hundred computers
Order
A formal association of people with similar interests;
He joined a golf club
They formed a small lunch society
Men from the fraternal order will staff the soup kitchen today
Order
A body of rules followed by an assembly
Order
(usually plural) the status or rank or office of a Christian clergyman in an ecclesiastical hierarchy;
Theologians still disagree over whether `bishop' should or should not be a separate order
Order
A group of person living under a religious rule;
The order of Saint Benedict
Order
(biology) taxonomic group containing one or more families
Order
A request for food or refreshment (as served in a restaurant or bar etc.);
I gave the waiter my order
Order
(architecture) one of original three styles of Greek architecture distinguished by the type of column and entablature used or a style developed from the original three by the Romans
Order
Putting in order;
There were mistakes in the ordering of items on the list
Order
Give instructions to or direct somebody to do something with authority;
I said to him to go home
She ordered him to do the shopping
The mother told the child to get dressed
Order
Make a request for something;
Order me some flowers
Order a work stoppage
Order
Issue commands or orders for
Order
Bring into conformity with rules or principles or usage; impose regulations;
We cannot regulate the way people dress
This town likes to regulate
Order
Bring order to or into;
Order these files
Order
Place in a certain order;
Order these files
Order
Appoint to a clerical posts;
He was ordained in the Church
Order
Arrange thoughts, ideas, temporal events, etc.;
Arrange my schedule
Set up one's life
I put these memories with those of bygone times
Order
Assign a rank or rating to;
How would you rank these students?
The restaurant is rated highly in the food guide
Common Curiosities
Can order be created artificially?
Yes, order can be artificially created through planning and control, such as in urban planning or organizational structures.
What role does order play in achieving efficiency?
Order facilitates efficiency by organizing elements or activities in a logical, predictable manner, reducing chaos and redundancy.
Can regularity exist without order?
Yes, regularity can exist inherently in natural systems without deliberate order, as seen in biological rhythms or geological formations.
What is an example of regularity disrupting order?
Regular geological events like earthquakes can disrupt the social order and infrastructure of a community.
How do order and regularity apply in societal contexts?
In society, order refers to structured systems like laws, while regularity might refer to predictable daily or seasonal behaviors of individuals.
What is the primary difference between order and regularity?
Order refers to structured arrangements, often externally imposed, while regularity denotes natural or consistent patterns.
Is regularity always predictable?
While regularity implies predictability, unexpected factors can sometimes disrupt regular patterns.
How does regularity contribute to stability in systems?
Regularity contributes to stability by providing predictable patterns that can be relied upon, which is crucial for planning and maintenance in system
Can a system have regularity but lack order?
A system can have regularity in its behavior or pattern, but lack order in terms of predictability or structure. This can occur in complex systems, such as weather patterns or the stock market.
How do order and regularity differ in their adaptability to change?
Order can be more easily adjusted by changing rules or systems, whereas regularity is more stable and less susceptible to sudden changes.
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Written by
Urooj ArifUrooj is a skilled content writer at Ask Difference, known for her exceptional ability to simplify complex topics into engaging and informative content. With a passion for research and a flair for clear, concise writing, she consistently delivers articles that resonate with our diverse audience.
Edited by
Tayyaba RehmanTayyaba Rehman is a distinguished writer, currently serving as a primary contributor to askdifference.com. As a researcher in semantics and etymology, Tayyaba's passion for the complexity of languages and their distinctions has found a perfect home on the platform. Tayyaba delves into the intricacies of language, distinguishing between commonly confused words and phrases, thereby providing clarity for readers worldwide.
