serial
/ˈsɪərɪəl
/adjective [attributive]
1Consisting of, forming part of, or taking place in a series: a serial publication...
- The journal begins serial publication this spring.
- Primary outputs are defined as publications in the serial peer reviewed literature, while the secondary outputs are taken to be evidence based clinical guidelines.
- It does not hold annual meetings or sponsor a serial publication.
1.1 Linguistics (Of verbs) used in sequence to form a construction, as in they wanted, needed, longed for peace: the use of serial verbs...
- Similarly, in the Pacific, it has been suggested that there may be Austronesian substratum influence in the serial constructions found in Tok Pisin.
2Repeatedly committing the same offence and typically following a characteristic, predictable behaviour pattern: a serial killer...
- By throwing an odd assortment of characters into the path of a home-grown serial killer, the film is able to achieve a dramatic density sadly absent from the genre for a number of years.
- So he may just be able to track down a serial killer with a penchant for committing perfect murders.
- These guys all follow set patterns and, like any good movie serial killer, they're too open and flamboyant in their actions.
2.1Repeatedly following the same behaviour pattern: he was a serial adulterer serial monogamy...
- Despite the family image, a book of revelations published by a former chauffeur has painted Chirac as a serial adulterer.
- He gives orders for other human beings to be blown away and he is a serial adulterer, but his power has unexpected limits.
- He was also a serial adulterer, regularly confessing his sins before committing them afresh.
3 Music Using transformations of a fixed series of notes: the harmonic flow of serial music Schoenberg’s serial revolution...
- He also for a brief time came under the influence of Schoenberg and wrote serial music, all of which (if I remember right) he destroyed.
- For example, forty years ago, not composing serial music meant not being a composer at all, and this was a clear tendency openly registered in books, articles and papers.
- Powers's music from the 1980s deploys a considered synthesis of serial, atonal and tonal techniques.
4 Computing (Of a device) involving the transfer of data as a single sequence of bits.The controller can concurrently perform the data transfer to and/or from the parallel and serial devices....
- It is even possible to add servers with a click of a mouse while supporting BIOS-level control of almost any number of servers or serial devices.
- You will see a list of serial devices; note that some will be built-in on your motherboard.
4.1(Of a processor) running only a single task, as opposed to multitasking.A serial processor executes each iteration through the loop, doing all the work....
- Besides, all neural networks at the moment are simulations that are written in software of an essentially serial nature which runs on serial processors.
- If it won't run on serial processors, then where is the parallel machine that it will run on?
noun
1A story or play appearing in regular instalments on television or radio or in a magazine: a new three-part drama serial...
- Each story in the serial would last a week, being spread over 5 weekday episodes.
- The success of this venture as a magazine serial preceding the book, has the writer planning a sequel.
- Fox is quite a rarity on television, as it is unusual for a serial of the time and of such length to have one author and one director.
2 (usually serials) (In a library) a periodical: [as modifier]: the Serials Librarian...
- Hopper also told the senate that there has been about a 25 percent decline in the number of serials purchased by the library in the past five years.
- So when we built the Library at SLAC, we put the serials on punch cards.
- She became a regular columnist for the Associated Negro Press and contributed poetry and reviews to numerous serials and collections.
Derivatives
seriality
- The postcard can be thought of as an ambivalent object, produced between spatial and temporal locations, between seriality and personalization.
- Not only does their very seriality suggest a relentless stream of crime, but the programmes themselves are organised around the repetitive replay of similar footage.
- She has developed a means by which to make chance contend with narrative; lyricism with cacophony and seriality.
Origin
Mid 19th century: from series + -al, perhaps suggested by French sérial.