- orderly
- orderly adj Orderly, methodical, systematic, regular are comparable when they mean following closely a set arrangement, design, or pattern.Orderly implies observance of due sequence or proper arrangement especially in the harmonious or careful disposition of persons or things{
the guests passed in orderly groups into the ball- room
}{an orderly placing of furniture
}or in obedience to the rules of conduct or behavior that guide disciplined persons{an orderly group of children
}{an orderly assembly of citizens
}{an orderly election
}or in keeping a place free from litter or confusion{his study is always orderly
}{an orderly housekeeper
}or in a scheme or system when all details stand in their proper relations, each playing its due part without interfering with that of any of the others{a process calculated to reduce the orderly life of our complicated societies to chaos— Huxley
}{the difference seems to me rather the difference between the complete and the fragmentary, the adult and the immature, the orderly and the chaotic— T. S. Eliot
}Methodical implies the observance of an order that has been carefully worked out so that the steps to be followed are exactly known or the pattern that is accepted seems logical or inevitable under the circumstances{make a methodical search for evidence
}{give methodical instructions to a new employee
}{begin a methodical study of the Bible
}{a methodical performance of daily duties
}Systematic comes close to methodical in ordinary use{needed a systematic brain, and a sympathetic nature— Andrew Buchanan
}{composing is self-expression and that is hard and systematic work— Toch
}but systematic, which always retains some notion of the ordered complex unity implied by the related noun (compare SYSTEM) may be preferred when the stress is not upon the order followed but upon the integrated and ordered whole involved; thus, methodical study implies study pursued in regular increments according to a predetermined schedule while systematic study implies study pursued according to a scheme in which each increment leads logically to the next and the end result is exposure to an integrated block of information{the realization that all languages are systematic structures— A. A. Hill
}{at the highest level, there stands . . . systematic theory, the conceptual framework within which a whole discipline is cast— Easton
}Systematic also may be used to suggest order in occurrence, in progression, and especially in repetition, still with some notion of an underlying system; thus, a systematic error is one that is inherent in a system of measurement or calculation and recurs whenever that system is used{a systematic plan for world conquest
}{they were not your gabbling, laughing eaters . . . they were quiet, systematic, devastating; they advanced steadily in good order from the first slice of ham to the last slice of chocolate cake— Priestley
}{nowhere else in our literature can such a systematic and chill-blooded series of rendings, gorings, murders, suicides, and executions be found— Aldridge
}Regular, with its basic implication of conformance to a rule (see also REGULAR 1), may come very close to orderly{even the most "realistic" work, if it is one of art, is not an imitative reproduction of the things that are so familiar, so regular, and so importunate that we call them real— Dewey
}{the umbrageous trees, which rose in a regular line from either side— De Quincey
}The term may imply steadiness or uniformity (as in following a schedule){regular meals
}{the gentleness of their morality, their regular and industrious habits— Tocqueville
}or it may suggest occurrence and recurrence (as at fixed or stated intervals or in uniform amount){the regular ebb and flow of the tides
}{the revenue of government from the taxes was not regular but capricious and exceptional— Belloc
}Analogous words: tidy, *neat, trim, spick-and-span: formal, conventional, ceremonious (see CEREMONIAL): peaceable, *pacific, peacefulAntonyms: disorderly: chaotic
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
