排列

• Pinyin: pái liè
• Hanzi breakdown: 排 = 扌 (hand) + 非 (not/opposite) — to push apart and arrange by hand; 列 = 歹 (bone fragments) + 刂 (knife) — to cut and lay out in a row

Meaning

To arrange; to line up; to put in order. Describes the act of organising items or people in a specific sequence or pattern.

Used for placing things in a deliberate order — alphabetically, numerically, by size, etc. Common in both everyday and technical contexts: 按顺序排列 (arrange in order), 排列组合 (permutation and combination, in mathematics). Differs from 排队 (queue up), which focuses on people standing in line.

Examples

1. 请把这些数字从小到大排列。 Please arrange these numbers from smallest to largest.
2. 书架上的书按照类别排列得很整齐。 The books on the shelf are neatly arranged by category.
3. 老师让学生们按高矮顺序排列站好。 The teacher asked the students to line up in order of height.

Usage Guide

Context: organisation, mathematics, instruction

Tone: instructional

Do Say

• 这些名字是按字母顺序排列的。(These names are arranged in alphabetical order.)
• 请把文件按时间排列好。(Please arrange the documents in chronological order.)

Don't Say

• 我们排列去买票吧 (Don't use 排列 for queuing up — use 排队; 排列 means to arrange things in order, not to form a queue of people)

Origin & History

A compound of 排 (to line up/arrange in a row) and 列 (to list/to display in order) — to place items in an organised sequence.

Cultural Context

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal