What is "stroke order"

n. the standard sequence in which a Chinese character is written in Chinese, Japanese or Korean writing

Stroke order (; Yale: bāt seuhn; hitsujun or kaki-jun; pilsun or hoeksun; Vietnamese: bút thuận 筆順) refers to the order in which the strokes of a Chinese character (or Chinese derivative character) are written. A stroke is a movement of a writing instrument on a writing surface. Chinese characters are used in various forms in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and in Vietnamese. They are known as Hanzi in Chinese, kanji in Japanese, Hanja in Korean, and Hán tự in Vietnamese.