rearrange

verb

re·​ar·​range ˌrē-ə-ˈrānj 

rearranged; rearranging

transitive verb

: to arrange (something or someone) again in a different way

rearranged the flowers on the table

rearrange the furniture

I rearranged my hair/clothes/glasses.

… anagrams, which are words or phrases rearranged to form different words or phrases.

—Carolyn Phelan

… massaging his knees while he talks, frequently rearranging himself into a more comfortable position.

—Daniel Ross

Sarah is more or less grimacing now …. In a minute, she'll rearrange her face to look cheerful.

—Aurelie Sheehan

… rearranging their lives … to go back to school, to get the education that was denied them or that they did not want when they were young.

—Ruth Dorgan

… thousands of people had to cancel or rearrange their travel plans.

—Ken Young

Examples of rearrange in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

She is shown whirring through the reels, cutting out celluloid strips of scenes, and placing them on a light box to figure out how to rearrange them. —The New Yorker, 24 Feb. 2025

All are eager to rearrange the party more to their ideological liking, though their views of how to fix what went wrong are often diametrically opposed. —Shane Goldmacher, New York Times, 17 Feb. 2025

Every week, Lenny had to rearrange the records on his wall to reflect the order of the Top 40 chart made by the local radio station WLS. —Nancy Walecki, The Atlantic, 13 Feb. 2025

These features provide the ability to vacuum under furniture, in corners, and in other hard-to-reach places without having to rearrange the entire house in the process. —Megan Schaltegger, People.com, 12 Feb. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1778, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for rearrange

• interchange
• arrange
• derange
• estrange
• exchange
• midrange
• change
• grange
• mange
• range
• strange

Kids Definition

rearrange

verb

re·​ar·​range

ˌrē-ə-ˈrānj

: to arrange again usually in a different way

rearranged the furniture

rearrangement noun