array

Etymology

From Middle English arrayen, from Anglo-Norman arraier (compare Old French arraier, areer (“to put in order”)), from Medieval Latin arrēdō (“to put in order, arrange, array”), from *rēdum (“preparation, order”), from Frankish *reida (“preparation, order”) or Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐍂𐌰𐌹𐌸𐍃 (garaiþs, “ready, prepared”), from Proto-Germanic *raidaz, *raidiz (“ready”). Doublet of ready.

noun

1. Clothing and ornamentation.
   Sovay, Sovay all on a day, She dressed herself in man's array, With a sword and a pistol all by her side, To meet her true love to meet her true love away did ride. 2017, anonymous author, “Sovay”, in Roud # 7, Laws N21
2. A collection laid out to be viewed in full.
   The Begums' ministers, on the contrary, to extort from them the disclosure of the place which concealed the treasures, were, […] after being fettered and imprisoned, led out on to a scaffold, and this array of terrours proving unavailing, the meek tempered Middleton, as a dernier resort, menaced them with a confinement in the fortress of Chunargar. Thus, my lords, was a British garrison made the climax of cruelties! 1788 June, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, “Mr. Sheridan’s Speech, on Summing Up the Evidence on the Second, or Begum Charge against Warren Hastings, Esq., Delivered before the High Court of Parliament, June 1788”, in Select Speeches, Forensick and Parliamentary, with Prefatory Remarks by N[athaniel] Chapman, M.D., volume I, [Philadelphia, Pa.]: Published by Hopkins and Earle, no. 170, Market Street, published 1808, →OCLC, page 474
   Upon leaving the center, I photographed the colorful array of petunias decorating the square in purple, pink, yellow, white, and magenta. 2002, David L. Thompson, “River of Memories -An Appalachian Boyhood”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), page 69
3. An orderly series, arrangement or sequence.
4. Order; a regular and imposing arrangement; disposition in regular lines; hence, order of battle.
   drawn up in battle array
5. A large collection.
   We offer a dazzling array of choices.
   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. October 23, 2011, Phil McNulty, “Man Utd 1 - 6 Man City”, in BBC Sport
6. (mathematics) Common name for matrix.
7. (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.
8. (law) A ranking or setting forth in order, by the proper officer, of a jury as impanelled in a cause; the panel itself; or the whole body of jurors summoned to attend the court.
9. (military) A militia.
10. A group of hedgehogs.
11. A microarray.

verb

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.
3. (law) To set in order, as a jury, for the trial of a cause; that is, to call them one at a time.