nonsequential
|non-se-quen-tial|
🇺🇸
/ˌnɑn.sɪˈkwɛn.ʃəl/
🇬🇧
/ˌnɒn.sɪˈkwɛn.ʃəl/
not following order
Etymology
'nonsequential' originates from English, specifically formed by the prefix 'non-' plus the adjective 'sequential', where 'sequential' ultimately comes from the Latin root 'sequi' meaning 'to follow'.
'sequi' (Latin) produced Medieval Latin nouns/adj. like 'sequentia'/'sequentialis', passed into French forms and Middle English as 'sequential', and the modern English adjective 'sequential' later combined with the negative prefix 'non-' to form 'nonsequential'.
Initially the Latin root 'sequi' meant 'to follow'; over time 'sequential' came to mean 'following in order', and 'nonsequential' developed to mean 'not following in order' or 'lacking sequence'.
Meanings by Part of Speech
Adjective 1
not arranged in a sequence; not following a particular or expected order.
The documentary presented events in a nonsequential way, which made the storyline harder to follow.
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Adjective 2
in technical contexts (e.g., computing, data access), describing access or processing that does not occur in strict sequential order.
The file system supports nonsequential access to records, allowing rapid retrieval without reading intervening data.
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Last updated: 2025/09/29 05:16