What is "money order"

Order \Or"der\, n. [OE. ordre, F. ordre, fr. L. ordo, ordinis. Cf. Ordain, Ordinal.]

1. Regular arrangement; any methodical or established succession or harmonious relation; method; system; as:

   1. Of material things, like the books in a library.

   2. Of intellectual notions or ideas, like the topics of a discource.

   3. Of periods of time or occurrences, and the like.

      The side chambers were . . . thirty in order.
      --Ezek. xli. 6.

      Bright-harnessed angels sit in order serviceable.
      --Milton.

      Good order is the foundation of all good things.
      --Burke.

2. Right arrangement; a normal, correct, or fit condition; as, the house is in order; the machinery is out of order.
   --Locke.

3. The customary mode of procedure; established system, as in the conduct of debates or the transaction of business; usage; custom; fashion.
   --Dantiel.

   And, pregnant with his grander thought, Brought the old order into doubt.
   --Emerson.

4. Conformity with law or decorum; freedom from disturbance; general tranquillity; public quiet; as, to preserve order in a community or an assembly.

5. That which prescribes a method of procedure; a rule or regulation made by competent authority; as, the rules and orders of the senate.

   The church hath authority to establish that for an order at one time which at another time it may abolish.
   --Hooker.

6. A command; a mandate; a precept; a direction.

   Upon this new fright, an order was made by both houses for disarming all the papists in England.
   --Clarendon.

7. Hence: A commission to purchase, sell, or supply goods; a direction, in writing, to pay money, to furnish supplies, to admit to a building, a place of entertainment, or the like; as, orders for blankets are large.

   In those days were pit orders -- beshrew the uncomfortable manager who abolished them.
   --Lamb.

8. A number of things or persons arranged in a fixed or suitable place, or relative position; a rank; a row; a grade; especially, a rank or class in society; a group or division of men in the same social or other position; also, a distinct character, kind, or sort; as, the higher or lower orders of society; talent of a high order.

   They are in equal order to their several ends.
   --Jer. Taylor.

   Various orders various ensigns bear.
   --Granville.

   Which, to his order of mind, must have seemed little short of crime.
   --Hawthorne.

9. A body of persons having some common honorary distinction or rule of obligation; esp., a body of religious persons or aggregate of convents living under a common rule; as, the Order of the Bath; the Franciscan order.

   Find a barefoot brother out, One of our order, to associate me.
   --Shak.

   The venerable order of the Knights Templars.
   --Sir W. Scott.

10. An ecclesiastical grade or rank, as of deacon, priest, or bishop; the office of the Christian ministry; -- often used in the plural; as, to take orders, or to take holy orders, that is, to enter some grade of the ministry.

11. (Arch.) The disposition of a column and its component parts, and of the entablature resting upon it, in classical architecture; hence (as the column and entablature are the characteristic features of classical architecture) a style or manner of architectural designing.

    Note: The Greeks used three different orders, easy to distinguish, Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian. The Romans added the Tuscan, and changed the Doric so that it is hardly recognizable, and also used a modified Corinthian called Composite. The Renaissance writers on architecture recognized five orders as orthodox or classical, -- Doric (the Roman sort), Ionic, Tuscan, Corinthian, and Composite. See Illust. of Capital.

12. (Nat. Hist.) An assemblage of genera having certain important characters in common; as, the Carnivora and Insectivora are orders of Mammalia.

    Note: The Linn[ae]an artificial orders of plants rested mainly on identity in the numer of pistils, or agreement in some one character. Natural orders are groups of genera agreeing in the fundamental plan of their flowers and fruit. A natural order is usually (in botany) equivalent to a family, and may include several tribes.

13. (Rhet.) The placing of words and members in a sentence in such a manner as to contribute to force and beauty or clearness of expression.

14. (Math.) Rank; degree; thus, the order of a curve or surface is the same as the degree of its equation. Artificial order or Artificial system. See Artificial classification, under Artificial, and Note to def. 12 above. Close order (Mil.), the arrangement of the ranks with a distance of about half a pace between them; with a distance of about three yards the ranks are in open order. The four Orders, The Orders four, the four orders of mendicant friars. See Friar. --Chaucer. General orders (Mil.), orders issued which concern the whole command, or the troops generally, in distinction from special orders. Holy orders.

    1. (Eccl.) The different grades of the Christian ministry; ordination to the ministry. See def. 10 above.

    2. (R. C. Ch.) A sacrament for the purpose of conferring a special grace on those ordained. In order to, for the purpose of; to the end; as means to. The best knowledge is that which is of greatest use in order to our eternal happiness. --Tillotson. Minor orders (R. C. Ch.), orders beneath the diaconate in sacramental dignity, as acolyte, exorcist, reader, doorkeeper. Money order. See under Money. Natural order. (Bot.) See def. 12, Note. Order book.

       1. A merchant's book in which orders are entered.

       2. (Mil.) A book kept at headquarters, in which all orders are recorded for the information of officers and men.

    3. A book in the House of Commons in which proposed orders must be entered. [Eng.] Order in Council, a royal order issued with and by the advice of the Privy Council. [Great Britain] Order of battle (Mil.), the particular disposition given to the troops of an army on the field of battle. Order of the day, in legislative bodies, the special business appointed for a specified day. Order of a differential equation (Math.), the greatest index of differentiation in the equation. Sailing orders (Naut.), the final instructions given to the commander of a ship of war before a cruise. Sealed orders, orders sealed, and not to be opened until a certain time, or arrival at a certain place, as after a ship is at sea. Standing order.

       1. A continuing regulation for the conduct of parliamentary business.

       2. (Mil.) An order not subject to change by an officer temporarily in command.

          To give order, to give command or directions.
          --Shak.

          To take order for, to take charge of; to make arrangements concerning.

          Whiles I take order for mine own affairs.
          --Shak.

          Syn: Arrangement; management. See Direction.

Money \Mon"ey\, n.; pl. Moneys. [OE. moneie, OF. moneie, F. monnaie, fr. L. moneta. See Mint place where coin is made, Mind, and cf. Moidore, Monetary.]

1. A piece of metal, as gold, silver, copper, etc., coined, or stamped, and issued by the sovereign authority as a medium of exchange in financial transactions between citizens and with government; also, any number of such pieces; coin.

   To prevent such abuses, . . . it has been found necessary . . . to affix a public stamp upon certain quantities of such particular metals, as were in those countries commonly made use of to purchase goods. Hence the origin of coined money, and of those public offices called mints.
   --A. Smith.

2. Any written or stamped promise, certificate, or order, as a government note, a bank note, a certificate of deposit, etc., which is payable in standard coined money and is lawfully current in lieu of it; in a comprehensive sense, any currency usually and lawfully employed in buying and selling.

3. Any article used as a medium of payment in financial transactions, such as checks drawn on checking accounts.

4. (Economics) Any form of wealth which affects a person's propensity to spend, such as checking accounts or time deposits in banks, credit accounts, letters of credit, etc. Various aggregates of money in different forms are given different names, such as M-1, the total sum of all currency in circulation plus all money in demand deposit accounts (checking accounts). Note: Whatever, among barbarous nations, is used as a medium of effecting exchanges of property, and in the terms of which values are reckoned, as sheep, wampum, copper rings, quills of salt or of gold dust, shovel blades, etc., is, in common language, called their money. 4. In general, wealth; property; as, he has much money in land, or in stocks; to make, or lose, money. The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. --1 Tim vi. 10 (Rev. Ver. ). Money bill (Legislation), a bill for raising revenue. Money broker, a broker who deals in different kinds of money; one who buys and sells bills of exchange; -- called also money changer. Money cowrie (Zo["o]l.), any one of several species of Cypr[ae]a (esp. Cypr[ae]a moneta) formerly much used as money by savage tribes. See Cowrie. Money of account, a denomination of value used in keeping accounts, for which there may, or may not, be an equivalent coin; e. g., the mill is a money of account in the United States, but not a coin. Money order,

   1. an order for the payment of money; specifically, a government order for the payment of money, issued at one post office as payable at another; -- called also postal money order.

   2. a similar order issued by a bank or other financial institution.

      Money scrivener, a person who procures the loan of money to others. [Eng.]

      Money spider, Money spinner (Zo["o]l.), a small spider; -- so called as being popularly supposed to indicate that the person upon whom it crawls will be fortunate in money matters.

      Money's worth, a fair or full equivalent for the money which is paid.

      A piece of money, a single coin.

      Ready money, money held ready for payment, or actually paid, at the time of a transaction; cash.

      plastic money, credit cards, usually made out of plastic; also called plastic; as, put it on the plastic.

      To make money, to gain or acquire money or property; to make a profit in dealings.

n. A type of cheque, usually purchased from a postal service to allow safe sending of money through the post, possibly to be redeemed in another country.

n. a written order for the payment of a sum to a named individual; obtainable and payable at a post office [syn: postal order]

A money order is a payment order for a pre-specified amount of money. As it is required that the funds be prepaid for the amount shown on it, it is a more trusted method of payment than a check.