array

English

Etymology

From Middle English arrayen, from Anglo-Norman arayer (compare Old French arayer, areer (“to put in order”)), from Medieval Latin arrēdō (“to put in order, arrange, array”), from Medieval Latin *rēdum (“preparation, order”), from Frankish *reida (“preparation, order”) or Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐍂𐌰𐌹𐌳𐍃 (garaids, “ready, prepared”), from Proto-Germanic *raidaz, *raidiz (“ready”), from Proto-Indo-European *reidʰ- (“to put in order, ease, make comfortable”). Cognate with Old High German gireiti (“preparation”), Old Frisian rēde (“ready”), Old English ġerǣde (“preparation, equipment”). More at ready.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• IPA: əˈɹeɪ
• Rhymes: -eɪ

Verb

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.

2. To lay out in an orderly arrangement; to deploy or marshal

Translations

to clothe/ornament

• Bulgarian: обличам (bg) (obličam), украсявам (bg) (ukrasjavam)
• Catalan: arreglar
• German: schmücken (de)
• Greek: στολίζω (el) (stolízo), ντύνω (el) (ntýno)
• Icelandic: klæða (is)

• Japanese: 盛装する (ja) (せいそうする, seisō suru)
• Russian: одевать (ru) (odevátʹ), облачать (ru) (oblačátʹ)
• Spanish: arreglar (es)

Noun

array (plural arrays)

1. Clothing and ornamentation.
2. A collection laid out to be viewed in full.
3. An orderly series, arrangement or sequence.
4. A large collection.

   We offer a dazzling array of choices.

   • 2011 October 23, Phil McNulty, “Man Utd 1 - 6 Man City”, 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.

5. (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.

Usage notes

• (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".

Derived terms

• associative array
• multidimensional array
• systolic array

Antonyms

• (orderly series): disarray

Translations

clothing/ornamentation

• Bulgarian: облекло (bg) (obleklo), носия (bg) (nosija)
• German: Tracht (de) f, Bekleidung (de) f
• Greek: στολή (el) (stolí) f, σύνολο (el) (sýnolo) n

• Russian: убор (ru) (ubór) m, наряд (ru) (narjád) m, одеяние (ru) (odejánije) n
• Spanish: atavío (es) m, galas (es) m pl

collection laid out

• German: Arrangement n; Feld n; Übersicht f

• Greek: σειρά (el) (seirá) f

large collection

• Bulgarian: маса (bg) (masa), множество (bg) (množestvo)
• German: Fülle f; Reihe f; Feld n; Zahl f; Anzahl f
• Greek: σειρά (el) (seirá) f, διάταξη (el) (diátaxi) f

• Russian: масса (ru) (mássa) f, множество (ru) (mnóžestvo) n
• Swedish: samling (sv) c

any of various data structures

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 數組 (cmn), 数组 (cmn) (shùzǔ)

• Czech: pole (cs) n
• Dutch: array (nl) m
• Finnish: taulukko (fi)
• French: tableau (fr) m
• German:

  Feld n (standard term, general);

  Matrix f, Tabelle f (contextual, specific);

  Reihe f, Zeile f, Spalte f (less used, contextual, specific)

• Greek: παράταξη (el) (parátaxi) f, σειρά (el) (seirá) f
• Hebrew: מערך m
• Hungarian: tömb (hu)
• Japanese: 配列 (ja) (はいれつ, hairetsu)
• Persian: آرایه (fa) (ârâye)
• Russian: массив (ru) (massív) m
• Spanish: vector (es) m, arreglo (es) m

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Ido: tabelo
• Romanian: tablou n

See also

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