Word of the Day

: August 19, 2009

inordinate

adjective in-OR-dun-ut

What It Means

: exceeding reasonable limits : immoderate

inordinate in Context

Mary complained that she had to spend an inordinate amount of time cleaning up after her two sloppy roommates.

Did You Know?

At one time if something was "inordinate," it did not conform to the expected or desired order of things. That sense, synonymous with "disorderly" or "unregulated," is now archaic, but it offers a hint at the origins of "inordinate." The word traces back to the Latin verb "ordinare," meaning "to arrange," combined with the negative prefix "in-." "Ordinare" is also the ancestor of such English words as "coordination," "subordinate," "ordination," and "ordain." "Ordinare" did not give us "order," "orderly," or "disorderly," but the root of those words is the same Latin noun ("ordo") from which "ordinare" itself derives.