array

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   an impressive display

   it was a bewildering array of books

2. 2
   noun

   an orderly arrangement

   an array of troops in battle order

3. 3
   verb

   to lay out orderly or logically in a line or as if in a line

   We arrayed all the parts before assembly.

4. 4
   noun

   Clothing and ornamentation; raiment.

   Sovay, Sovay all on a day, She dressed herself in man's array, With a sword and a pistol all by her side, To meet her true love to meet her true love away did ride.

5. 5
   noun

   A collection laid out to be viewed in full.

   The Begums' ministers, on the contrary, to extort from them the disclosure of the place which concealed the treasures, were, […] after being fettered and imprisoned, led out on to a scaffold, and this array of terrours proving unavailing, the meek tempered Middleton, as a dernier resort, menaced them with a confinement in the fortress of Chunargar. Thus, my lords, was a British garrison made the climax of cruelties!

6. 6
   noun

   An orderly series, arrangement or sequence.

   But the chivalry of France was represented by as gallant an array of nobles and cavaliers as ever fought under the banner of the lilies

7. 7
   noun

   Order; a regular and imposing arrangement; disposition in regular lines; hence, order of battle.

   drawn up in battle array

8. 8
   noun

   A large collection.

   We offer a dazzling array of choices.

Etymology

From Middle English arrayen, from Anglo-Norman arraier (compare Old French arraier, areer (“to put in order”)), from Vulgar Latin *arrēdō (“to put in order, arrange, array”), from *rēdum (“preparation, order”), from Frankish *raid or *raidā (“preparation, order”) or Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐍂𐌰𐌹𐌸𐍃 (garaiþs, “ready, prepared”), from Proto-Germanic *raidaz, *raidiz (“ready”). Compare Old English rād (“condition, stipulation”), Old High German antreitī (“order, rank”). Doublet of ready.