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Definition of sequence in English:

sequence

Pronunciation /ˈsēkwəns/ /ˈsikwəns/

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noun

1A particular order in which related events, movements, or things follow each other.
‘the content of the program should follow a logical sequence’
- ‘I did not want to interrupt the member, particularly because I agreed with most of what he was saying, but I suggest that we follow a logical sequence here.’
- ‘Number each part of the preparation in a logical sequence that you can follow every time.’
- ‘The numbered items defined below are given in a logical sequence that keeps related terms together, which an alphabetical order would disrupt.’
- ‘Now I don't know if any of the above is true, but this is a logical set of possible sequences.’
- ‘It doesn't follow a sequence, it's not chronological.’
- ‘I followed its sequence, page by page, and wrote three distinct but overlapping accounts for each layout.’
- ‘However, in some research no attempt is made to follow the sequence outlined in Figure 1.1.’
- ‘A logical, progressive sequence is followed, in accordance with how I was trained in the Vaganova school.’
- ‘Most machines follow one of two sequences to complete a transaction.’
- ‘This model establishes a sequence for trainers to follow, at all echelons, to improve planning through the execution of training events.’
- ‘Since geometry follows algebra in the sequence, I guess the issue is when students are developmentally ready for algebra.’
- ‘A consistent count process that follows the same sequence helps ensure accuracy and improves efficiency.’
- ‘Although the timing of these changes is different for every guy, the stages of puberty generally follow a set sequence.’
- ‘Failure to follow the sequence is a procedural and will cost the shooter an additional 10 second penalty.’
- ‘In addition, they mixed up the order of the episodes, which the creators designed to follow a sequence.’
- ‘In each of these first three readings, you can follow a clear sequence.’
- ‘Books are becoming obsolete, because they follow a certain sequence.’
- ‘She was playing a dancing game which required jumping on buttons in a certain sequence to follow the beat of a song.’
- ‘The wave of contraction, therefore, follows the same sequence: atria first, then ventricles.’
- ‘Does the player have to follow a linear sequence or will there be choices to make?’
succession, order, course, series, chain, concatenation, train, string, cycle, progression
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1. 1.1Music A repetition of a phrase or melody at a higher or lower pitch.
  ‘a restless search for interesting harmonic sequences’
  ‘If the repetition is only in the melody, with changed harmony, it is called a melodic sequence, and if the repetition is followed also in the harmony, a harmonic sequence.’
  ‘The last repetition of the sequence takes the triads down to the tonic D major and the vocal line up to F (sharp).’
  ‘By the end of ‘Cromosomi’, with its tricky harmonic sequence that descends in semitones, he had the audience in the palm of his hand.’
  ‘A finely-crafted use of sequence is one of Mozart's outstanding virtues.’
2. 1.2Biochemistry The order in which amino acid or nucleotide residues are arranged in a protein, DNA, etc.
  ‘these are enzymes which will cleave only at specific base sequences in the DNA’
  ‘The relationship between the nucleotide sequence and the protein amino-acid sequence determines the genetic code.’
  ‘The molecular classification of lactamases is based on the nucleotide and amino acid sequences in these enzymes.’
  ‘When the amino acid sequences of the four proteins are compared, only a 28% identity is found.’
  ‘The nucleotide sequences of the constructed plasmids were verified by DNA sequencing.’
  ‘Complete mtDNA nucleotide sequences are available for a total of 76 species, of which 58 are metazoan.’
2A set of related events, movements, or things that follow each other in a particular order.
‘a grueling sequence of exercises’
- ‘a sonnet sequence’
- ‘It is a sequence of movements that is generally done 12 times a day.’
- ‘The call of any race is simply a momentary climax in an unfolding sequence of related events week to week.’
- ‘One of the keys to playing the piano - or at least to playing it well - is the ability of the pianist to time appropriately a sequence of movements of the fingers.’
- ‘It's like the way some people remember their credit card pin number by the sequence of movements they use to key it in, he says.’
- ‘Practitioners guide you through a sequence of slow movements.’
- ‘But if they had been watching, they would have been puzzled by the sequence of events that followed.’
- ‘However, I still cannot understand or rationalise the distressing sequence of events that followed his death.’
- ‘She glanced up just in time to see Dominique raising his hands up, swiftly pushing the basketball out of his grip and into the hoop in a perfect sequence of movement.’
- ‘And she went on to describe the odd sequence of seemingly chance events which had unavoidably led her to the scene of a fire, a large antique store wreathed in destructive glow.’
- ‘But if the journalistic scope includes the sequence of events that led to the leak, the coverage has the potential to be illuminating.’
- ‘The next time your favourite song comes on the radio, take a moment to appreciate the huge sequence of events that is taking place within your head and allow yourself to hear that sound.’
- ‘It is yet another twist in a drawn-out sequence of events which has left the council, hall supporters and national heritage preservation groups at loggerheads.’
- ‘This sequence of events is instructive in several respects.’
- ‘It's such a complicated sequence of events that I really believe that it's more complicated than one person could affect.’
- ‘Let's talk about the whole sequence of events in his revival.’
- ‘Together they make up a complete sequence of events.’
- ‘In between the anxious question and the affirmative answer, the narrative contains a bewildering sequence of events.’
- ‘Here's the sequence of events when someone is having their reaction time measured.’
- ‘If the latter, how are the members of the sequence ordered and related to each other?’
- ‘In a deepening darkness, they start singing, strange words in a complicated rhythm, repeating a sequence of five phrases.’
series, succession, string, sequence, train, trail, run, pattern, progression, course, set, line, row, concatenation
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1. 2.1A set of three or more playing cards of the same suit next to each other in value, for example 10, 9, 8.
  ‘Consider splitting it into shorter sequences - for example you might take the lead with the upper four cards and then play the lower five.’
  ‘If two players have identical sequences in non-trump suits, the one wins whose turn to play to the first trick is earlier.’
  ‘To be valid, sequences in the same suit must either have a gap between them or overlap.’
  ‘A card or sequence is beaten by any higher card or sequence in the same suit.’
  ‘The valid melds are sequences and groups as in Carousel.’
  ‘Melds are formed as in other rummy games: groups of three or more cards of the same rank, or sequences of three or more cards of the same suit in rank order.’
  ‘The novelty in this game, compared to Canasta, is the fact that you can build sequences.’
  ‘If the heights are the same, the player who holds a trump sequence specifies it.’
  ‘The ranking and values of the cards are different in the trump suit from the other three suits, and there is yet another ranking that applies when the cards are melded in sequences.’
  ‘There are no minus points for any cards that remain in the hands of the non-winning players, who are not able to make one or both of the required matched sequences.’
  ‘You are not obligated to lay down completed sequences, however, you do risk being caught with the cards in your hand if another player goes out.’
  ‘Some of these games have additional scoring combinations, such as sequences or fours of a kind.’
  ‘The following dealer looks for another ace, the next for a king, then a queen and so on, creating a separate sequence from the second ace back down to another two.’
  ‘The winning sequence is displayed for verification as the second trick is played.’
2. 2.2Mathematics An infinite ordered series of numerical quantities.
  ‘Thus all infinite sequences of natural numbers have the same power, aleph zero.’
  ‘Infinitely many sequences result from Viswanath's rule.’
  ‘Cantor published a paper on trigonometric series in 1872 in which he defined irrational numbers in terms of convergent sequences of rational numbers.’
  ‘It deals with the development into a continued fraction of the generating function of a sequence satisfying a difference equation.’
  ‘The paper gives a proof of the intermediate value theorem with Bolzano's new approach and in the work he defined what is now called a Cauchy sequence.’
3A part of a film dealing with one particular event or topic.
‘the famous underwater sequence’
- ‘Operatic in scale, featuring garish colours and fantastic action sequences, the film is a minor adventure classic.’
- ‘This sets them apart from similar sequences in other action films, which hesitate to show a child uncomfortable, let alone suffering.’
- ‘It remains one of the most exciting action sequences ever filmed.’
- ‘The disc also has a series of production photos, and the storyboards from several sequences in the film.’
- ‘The film contains extraordinary sequences, particularly those dealing with the impoverished coal miner cousin of one of the male protagonists.’
- ‘Also, the special effects and action scenes are quite superb, particularly the monorail sequences at the film's climax.’
- ‘The film begins with a sequence that intercuts between two rooms at the same luxury hotel in Venice, Italy.’
- ‘With the unparalleled realism of the film's opening sequences barely moments behind, the scene shifts to one of patriotic transcendence.’
- ‘The film's final sequence shows a poor Kenyan woman selling bananas to the passengers on the stopped train.’
- ‘And film's action sequences all too frequently consist of little more than men running down city streets.’
- ‘The initial combat scenes are well directed, chilling and very unsettling, but the events that follow, the courtroom sequences in particular, are hackneyed and dull.’
- ‘It was incredible to view the same works in motion, as the camera panned, zoomed, and followed them in time-lapsed sequences.’
- ‘Thus, heavily emotional sequences are often followed by lighter ones.’
- ‘There is one weird quirk though - in almost every episode, the scene immediately following the credits sequence is extremely fuzzy.’
- ‘The sequence follows a journey undertaken by a flock of sheep, which follows one of their number out of their field, as they tend to do.’
- ‘The other questions that follow in the sequence make the subtext less subtle.’
- ‘There follows a fantasy sequence in which they both swim, hand-in-hand around the aquarium.’
- ‘The nightclub sequence is a good example of a familiar scenario treated in a fresh manner.’
- ‘The opening sequence, for example, is very lame.’
- ‘A mischievous humour is also apparent, for example in the sequence involving a car reversing over a frozen lake.’
excerpt, clip, scene, extract, episode, section, segment
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4(in the Eucharist) a hymn said or sung after the Gradual or Alleluia that precedes the Gospel.
‘Intended for liturgical use, her verses fall into the familiar categories of antiphon, respond, sequence, and hymn, and cover the cycle of the church year.’
- ‘At the end of the sequence the celebrant says, ‘Snatch us from damnation and receive us among your elect.’’

transitive verb

[with object]

1Arrange in a particular order.
‘trainee librarians decide how a set of misfiled cards could be sequenced’
- ‘The switch condition was manipulated by sequencing the order of tasks across each five-trial series.’
- ‘The series of transplant cases was sequenced in the order in which the operations were carried out.’
- ‘What is put on stage and managed and ordered and sequenced is merely creative manifestations of culture and is not to be equated with culture itself.’
- ‘He described how one writer used tarot cards to sequence her memoir about her friendships.’
- ‘Thus, with choices made of library books read, the reader sequences his/her own order of experiences.’
- ‘It's also a very cleverly put together compilation, sequencing the songs for maximum impact rather than chronological accuracy.’
- ‘A skilled editor, she thoughtfully sequenced selected images and augmented them with the barest essential commentary.’
- ‘You actually have less control when you bring all of your equipment, because everything is much more fixed and has to be sequenced.’
- ‘All the bits were there, but only Brian himself knew how they were meant to be sequenced, what bit was meant to go with which.’
- ‘The costs spiral because each part of the construction has to be sequenced.’
- ‘Editing is the process of creating meaning horizontally along a timeline from beginning to end, by placing and sequencing images next to each other in a specific order.’
- ‘There were strong dialogue scenes with the caretaker and emotional scenes at the crater itself, but no real logical way to sequence them.’
- ‘How do you decide how to sequence the film, which interview to put where?’
- ‘All that information has to be collected, compiled, sequenced and analyzed before any credible conclusions can be drawn.’
- ‘The trials involve multiple issues, which ought to have been separated and sequenced to ensure a meaningful trial.’
1. 1.1Biochemistry Ascertain the sequence of amino acid or nucleotide residues in (a protein, DNA, etc.)
  ‘we have undertaken to isolate and sequence the rat retinoblastoma cDNA’
  ‘independent clones were analyzed by DNA sequencing’
  ‘We sequenced genomic DNA from heterozygous animals in an attempt to identify the remaining mutations.’
  ‘For comparison, we sequenced genomic DNA from the stock used to generate the mutants.’
  ‘We have sequenced mitochondrial DNA and nuclear genes from wild and domestic pigs from Asia and Europe.’
  ‘Recently, the yeast genome was completely sequenced and no insulin-like genes were found.’
  ‘The final verification of the mutation was ascertained by sequencing in both directions.’
2Play or record (music) with a sequencer.
‘That was much more to do with electronic / sequenced music with a live edge.’
- ‘His work has often interrogated the boundaries between live and sequenced music; between improvisation and composition.’
- ‘The project started with Brock writing and sequencing a demo of the song that we were going to perform.’
- ‘As a remedy, they commissioned him to compose and sequence a music track for the DVD release of the film.’
- ‘The pace shifts only slightly but different textures work their way in and out - chimes of guitar; sequenced percussion, all threads in a greater fabric.’
- ‘If you're a solo singer or guitarist they will sequence any backing track you wish to use.’
- ‘No need to stick sequenced drums over it - just play the music and see how many people get up and dance.’
- ‘It is, of course, out of place, sounding heavily sequenced compared to the Black Devil productions that used no computers or MIDI.’
- ‘These guys play live beats, as well as sampling and sequencing their own sounds.’

Phrases

in sequence

In a given order.
‘So the right way to order the elements in sequence is by atomic number, which progresses by one from each element to the next.’
- ‘At some point, they'll probably have at least one marathon with all the episodes to date aired in sequence.’
- ‘I can still continue to win bets naming all the Soviet leaders in sequence.’
- ‘You set forth several of the recommendations, but they were in sequence, as you know, in the report.’
- ‘One may think a multitude of thoughts only by moving among them in sequence.’
- ‘It's better for the nominees to be taken in sequence, separated by a decent interval.’
- ‘Most schemes require works to be carried out in sequence.’
- ‘For total recall, visualise each location in sequence.’
- ‘As stated above, the metaphor represents events which occurred in sequence, in created time and space.’
- ‘It's immediately obvious that they know what they're doing, introducing themselves in sequence and enunciating clearly.’