array

From Middle English arrayen, from Anglo-Norman arraier (compare Old French arraier, areer (“to put in order”)), from Medieval Latin arrēdō (“to put in order, arrange, array”), from *rēdum (“preparation, order”), from Frankish *reida (“preparation, order”) or Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐍂𐌰𐌹𐌸𐍃 (garaiþs, “ready, prepared”), from Proto-Germanic *raidaz, *raidiz (“ready”). Doublet of ready.

• (US) IPA^(key): /əˈɹeɪ/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /əˈɹeɪ/, /ˈæ.ɹeɪ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪ

array (countable and uncountable, plural arrays)

1. Clothing and ornamentation.
   • 2017, Anon., “Sovay”, in Roud # 7, Laws N21‎:

     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.

   • 1700, [John] Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite: Or, The Knight’s Tale. In Three Books.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], OCLC 228732415, book I, page 8:

     In this Remembrance Emily e’re day / Aroſe, and dreſs’d her ſelf in rich Array […]

2. A collection laid out to be viewed in full.
   • 1788 June, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, “Mr. Sheridan’s Speech, on Summing Up the Evidence on the Second, or Begum Charge against Warren Hastings, Esq., Delivered before the High Court of Parliament, June 1788”, in Select Speeches, Forensick and Parliamentary, with Prefatory Remarks by N[athaniel] Chapman, M.D., volume I, [Philadelphia, Pa.]: Published by Hopkins and Earle, no. 170, Market Street, published 1808, OCLC 230944105, page 474:

     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!

   • 2002, David L. Thompson, “River of Memories -An Appalachian Boyhood”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), page 69:

     Upon leaving the center, I photographed the colorful array of petunias decorating the square in purple, pink, yellow, white, and magenta.

3. An orderly series, arrangement or sequence.
   • 1855–1858, William H[ickling] Prescott, History of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain, volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Boston, Mass.: Phillips, Sampson, and Company, OCLC 645131689:

     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

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

   drawn up in battle array

   • 1776, Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] W[illiam] Strahan; and T[homas] Cadell, […], OCLC 995235880:

     wedged together in the closest array

5. A large collection.

   We offer a dazzling array of choices.

   • 1814, Lord Byron, “Canto III”, in The Corsair, a Tale, London: […] Thomas Davison, […], for John Murray, […], OCLC 1061889661, stanza I, lines 1218–1211, page 64:

     Again his waves in milder tints unfold / Their long array of sapphire and of gold, / Mixt with the shades of many a distant isle, / That frown—where gentler ocean seems to smile.

   • 2011 October 23, Phil McNulty, “Man Utd 1 - 6 Man City”, in BBC Sport‎:

     Mario Balotelli, in the headlines for accidentally setting his house ablaze with fireworks, put City on their way with goals either side of the interval as United struggled to contain the array of attacking talent in front of them.

6. (mathematics) Common name for matrix.
7. (programming) Any of various data structures designed to hold multiple elements of the same type; especially, a data structure that holds these elements in adjacent memory locations so that they may be retrieved using numeric indices.
8. (law) A ranking or setting forth in order, by the proper officer, of a jury as impanelled in a cause; the panel itself; or the whole body of jurors summoned to attend the court.
9. (military) A militia.
10. A group of hedgehogs.[1]
11. A microarray.

• (any of various data structures): The exact usage of the term array, and of related terms, generally depends on the programming language. For example, many languages distinguish a fairly low-level "array" construct from a higher-level "list" or "vector" construct. Some languages distinguish between an "array" and a variety of "associative array"; others have only the latter concept, calling it an "array".

• (orderly series): disarray

• (any of various data structures): ones-based indexing, zero-based indexing

array (third-person singular simple present arrays, present participle arraying, simple past and past participle arrayed)

1. To clothe and ornament; to adorn or attire.

   He was arrayed in his finest robes and jewels.

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938, stanza 37, page 317:

     In a long purple pall, whose ſkirt with gold, / Was fretted all about, ſhe was arayd, […]

2. To lay out in an orderly arrangement; to deploy or marshal.
3. (law) To set in order, as a jury, for the trial of a cause; that is, to call them one at a time.
   • 1768, William Blackstone, “Of the Trial by Jury”, in Commentaries on the Laws of England, book III (Of Private Wrongs), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, OCLC 65350522, page 359:

     Alſo, though there be no perſonal objection againſt the ſheriff, yet if he arrays the panel at the nomination, or under the direction of either party, this is good cauſe of challenge to the array.

• (to clothe and ornament): don, dress, put on; see also Thesaurus:clothe or Thesaurus:decorate

Unadapted borrowing from English array.

array m (plural arrays)

1. (programming) array (any of various data structures)

   Synonym: vetor