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serial

adjectivenounverbcommon in dialogue

  • United Kingdom//ˈsɪə.ɹɪ.əl//
  • United States//ˈsɪɹ.i.əl//

Having to do with or arranged in a series.

adjective

  1. 1

    Having to do with or arranged in a series.

    These singular ribs have a very different direction from that of the serial teeth of the hinge, and cannot be taken for teeth.

  2. 2

    Who performs a specified action or course of action repeatedly or regularly.

    The serial killer had a string of victims across seven states.

    He was a serial entrepreneur, always coming up with a new way to make cash.

    "No I could not!" Kate looked at Max sternly. "I am not a cheat and I am not a serial monogamist."

    “It’s easier to sort of attribute these deaths to a boogeyman serial killer as opposed to confronting the real possible reasons that these deaths are happening,” she said, pointing to mental health, substance abuse and housing issues.

  3. 3

    Published or produced in installments.

  4. 4

    Of or relating to a grammatical aspect relating to an action that is habitual and ongoing.

Etymology

Formed as series + -al, on model of Latin seriālis, from seriēs + -ālis. Cognate to Italian seriale. First use appears c. 1823. See cite below.

noun

  1. 1

    A literary or dramatic work, such as a radio or television programme, published in installments, often numbered and without a specified end.

  2. 2

    A publication issued in successive parts, often numbered and with no predetermined end.

  3. 3

    slangA serial number, esp. one required to activate software.

    Go to these sites for serials, cracks and keygens.

  4. 4

    A unit of police officers equipped with shields to tackle a riot.

    The practice, especially among members of shield serials, of 'whooping like cowboys and indians' and beating of truncheons on riot shields must cease as this tends to frighten and intimidate rioters.

    The serials worked in pairs, one with long shields and one with short shields.

verb

  1. 1

    to assign a serial number to (especially of aircraft)

Forms

plural
serials
past tense
serialed, serialled
past participle
serialed, serialled
present participle
serialing, serialling
third person singular
serials
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).