Order vs. Rank — What's the Difference?

The arrangement or disposition of people or things in relation to each other according to a particular sequence, pattern, or method

A relative position in a society.

An authoritative command or instruction

An official position or grade

A particular social, political, or economic system

A relative position or degree of value in a graded group.

A society of monks, nuns, or friars living under the same religious, moral, and social regulations and discipline

High or eminent station or position

The quality or nature of something

A row, line, series, or range.

A principal taxonomic category that ranks below class and above family

A line of soldiers, vehicles, or equipment standing side by side in close 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.

Ranks The armed forces.

Equipment or uniform for a specified purpose or of a specified type

Ranks Personnel, especially enlisted military personnel.

The degree of complexity of an equation, expression, etc., as denoted by an ordinal number.

Ranks A body of people classed together; numbers

Give an authoritative instruction to do something

(Games) Any of the rows of squares running crosswise to the files on a playing board in chess or checkers.

Request (something) to be made, supplied, or served

To place in a row or rows.

Arrange (something) in a methodical way

To give a particular order or position to; classify.

A condition of logical or comprehensible arrangement among the separate elements of a group.

To outrank or take precedence over.

A condition of methodical or prescribed arrangement among component parts such that proper functioning or appearance is achieved

To hold a particular rank

Condition or state in general

To form or stand in a row or rows.

The established system of social organization

To complain.

A condition in which freedom from disorder or disruption is maintained through respect for established authority

To engage in carping criticism. Often used with on

A sequence or arrangement of successive things

Growing profusely or with excessive vigor

The prescribed form or customary procedure, as in a meeting or court of law

Yielding a profuse, often excessive crop; highly fertile

An authoritative indication to be obeyed; a command or direction.

Strong and offensive in odor or flavor

A command given by a superior military officer requiring obedience, as in the execution of a task.

Absolute; complete

Orders Formal written instructions to report for military duty at a specified time and place.

Strong of its kind or in character; unmitigated; virulent; thorough; utter (used of negative things).

A commission or instruction to buy, sell, or supply something.

Strong in growth; growing with vigour or rapidity, hence, coarse or gross.

That which is supplied, bought, or sold.

Suffering from overgrowth or hypertrophy; plethoric.

A request made by a customer at a restaurant for a portion of food.

Causing strong growth; producing luxuriantly; rich and fertile.

The food requested.

Strong to the senses; offensive; noisome.

(Law) A directive or command of a court.

Having a very strong and bad taste or odor.

Any of several grades of the Christian ministry

Complete, used as an intensifier (usually negative, referring to incompetence).

Often orders The rank of an ordained Christian minister or priest.

(informal) Gross, disgusting.

Often orders The sacrament or rite of ordination.

(obsolete) Strong; powerful; capable of acting or being used with great effect; energetic; vigorous; headstrong.

Any of the nine grades or choirs of angels.

(obsolete) lustful; lascivious

A group of persons living under a religious rule

(obsolete) Quickly, eagerly, impetuously.

An organization of people united by a common fraternal bond or social aim.

A row of people or things organized in a grid pattern, often soldiers.

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

(chess) One of the eight horizontal lines of squares on a chessboard (i.e., those identified by a number).

The insignia worn by such people.

(music) In a pipe organ, a set of pipes of a certain quality for which each pipe corresponds to one key or pedal.

Often orders A social class

One's position in a list sorted by a shared property such as physical location, population, or quality.

A class defined by the common attributes of its members; a kind.

The level of one's position in a class-based society.

Degree of quality or importance; rank

(typically in the plural) A category of people, such as those who share an occupation or belong to an organisation.

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.

A hierarchical level in an organization such as the military.

A style of building

(taxonomy) A level in a scientific taxonomy system.

(Biology) A taxonomic category of organisms ranking above a family and below a class.

(mathematics) The dimensionality of an array (computing) or tensor.

The sum of the exponents to which the variables in a term are raised; degree.

(linear algebra) The maximal number of linearly independent columns (or rows) of a matrix.

An indicated number of successive differentiations to be performed.

(algebra) The maximum quantity of D-linearly independent elements of a module (over an integral domain D).

The number of elements in a finite group.

(mathematics) The size of any basis of a given matroid.

The number of rows or columns in a determinant or matrix.

To place abreast, or in a line.

To issue a command or instruction to

To have a ranking.

To direct to proceed as specified

To assign a suitable place in a class or order; to classify.

To give a command or instruction for

(US) To take rank of; to outrank.

To request to be supplied with

Luxuriant in growth; of vigorous growth; exuberant; grown to immoderate height; as, rank grass; rank weeds.

To put into a methodical, systematic arrangement

Raised to a high degree; violent; extreme; gross; utter; as, rank heresy.

To predestine; ordain.

Causing vigorous growth; producing luxuriantly; very rich and fertile; as, rank land.

To give an order or orders; request that something be done or supplied.

Strong-scented; rancid; musty; as, oil of a rank smell; rank-smelling rue.

(countable) Arrangement, disposition, or sequence.

Strong to the taste.

(countable) A position in an arrangement, disposition, or sequence.

Inflamed with venereal appetite.

(uncountable) The state of being well arranged.

Rankly; stoutly; violently.

(countable) Conformity with law or decorum; freedom from disturbance; general tranquillity; public quiet.

A row or line; a range; an order; a tier; as, a rank of osiers.

(countable) A command.

A line of soldiers ranged side by side; - opposed to file. See 1st File, 1 (a).

(countable) A request for some product or service; a commission to purchase, sell, or supply goods.

Grade of official standing, as in the army, navy, or nobility; as, the rank of general; the rank of admiral.

(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.

An aggregate of individuals classed together; a permanent social class; an order; a division; as, ranks and orders of men; the highest and the lowest ranks of men, or of other intelligent beings.

(countable) An association of knights.

Degree of dignity, eminence, or excellence; position in civil or social life; station; degree; grade; as, a writer of the first rank; a lawyer of high rank.

Any group of people with common interests.

Elevated grade or standing; high degree; high social position; distinction; eminence; as, a man of rank.

(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.

To place abreast, or in a line.

A category in the classification of organisms, ranking below class and above family; a taxon at that rank.

To range in a particular class, order, or division; to class; also, to dispose methodically; to place in suitable classes or order; to classify.

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.

To take rank of; to outrank.

(Christianity) An ecclesiastical rank or position, usually for the sake of ministry, when plural holy orders.

To be ranged; to be set or disposed, as in a particular degree, class, order, or division.

(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.

To have a certain grade or degree of elevation in the orders of civil or military life; to have a certain degree of esteem or consideration; as, he ranks with the first class of poets; he ranks high in public estimation.

(cricket) The sequence in which a side’s batsmen bat; the batting order.

A row or line of people (especially soldiers or police) standing abreast of one another;

(electronics) A power of polynomial function in an electronic circuit’s block, such as a filter, an amplifier, etc.

Relative status;

(chemistry) The overall power of the rate law of a chemical reaction, expressed as a polynomial function of concentrations of reactants and products.

The ordinary members of an organization (such as the enlisted soldiers of an army);

(set theory) The cardinality, or number of elements in a set, group, or other structure regardable as a set.

Position in a social hierarchy;

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).

The body of members of an organization or group;

(graph theory) The number of vertices in a graph.

Take or have a position relative to others;

(order theory) A partially ordered set.

Assign a rank or rating to;

(order theory) The relation on a partially ordered set that determines that it is, in fact, a partially ordered set.

Take precedence or surpass others in rank

(algebra) The sum of the exponents on the variables in a monomial, or the highest such among all monomials in a polynomial.

Very fertile; producing profuse growth;

(finance) A written direction to furnish someone with money or property; compare money order, postal order.

Very offensive in smell or taste;

(transitive) To set in some sort of order.

Conspicuously and outrageously bad or reprehensible;

(transitive) To arrange, set in proper order.

Complete and without restriction or qualification; sometimes used informally as intensifiers;

(transitive) To issue a command to.

Growing profusely;

(transitive) To request some product or service; to secure by placing an order.

To admit to holy orders; to ordain; to receive into the ranks of the ministry.

Regular arrangement; any methodical or established succession or harmonious relation; method; system

Right arrangement; a normal, correct, or fit condition; as, the house is in order; the machinery is out of order.

The customary mode of procedure; established system, as in the conduct of debates or the transaction of business; usage; custom; fashion.

Conformity with law or decorum; freedom from disturbance; general tranquillity; public quiet; as, to preserve order in a community or an assembly.

That which prescribes a method of procedure; a rule or regulation made by competent authority; as, the rules and orders of the senate.

A command; a mandate; a precept; a direction.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

An assemblage of genera having certain important characters in common; as, the Carnivora and Insectivora are orders of Mammalia.

The placing of words and members in a sentence in such a manner as to contribute to force and beauty or clearness of expression.

Rank; degree; thus, the order of a curve or surface is the same as the degree of its equation.

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 give an order to; to command; as, to order troops to advance.

To give an order for; to secure by an order; as, to order a carriage; to order groceries.

To admit to holy orders; to ordain; to receive into the ranks of the ministry.

To give orders; to issue commands.

(often plural) a command given by a superior (e.g., a military or law enforcement officer) that must be obeyed;

A degree in a continuum of size or quantity;

Established customary state (especially of society);

Logical or comprehensible arrangement of separate elements;

A condition of regular or proper arrangement;

A legally binding command or decision entered on the court record (as if issued by a court or judge);

A commercial document used to request someone to supply something in return for payment and providing specifications and quantities;

A formal association of people with similar interests;

A body of rules followed by an assembly

(usually plural) the status or rank or office of a Christian clergyman in an ecclesiastical hierarchy;

A group of person living under a religious rule;

(biology) taxonomic group containing one or more families

A request for food or refreshment (as served in a restaurant or bar etc.);

(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

Putting in order;

Give instructions to or direct somebody to do something with authority;

Make a request for something;

Issue commands or orders for

Bring into conformity with rules or principles or usage; impose regulations;

Bring order to or into;

Place in a certain order;

Appoint to a clerical posts;

Arrange thoughts, ideas, temporal events, etc.;

Assign a rank or rating to;