Question

that which comes before in order of importance​

Answer 1

Answer:

Order of Importance. Ideas or steps are prioritized by the writer or speaker according to a hierarchy of value. When using the order of importance pattern of organization, information can be structured from most important to least important or least important to most important.

Answer 2

Sep 2 '13 at 11:05

I know what "time order" generally means. What's "space order"? – Andrew Leach♦ Sep 2 '13 at 11:06

It was in a book. – user45373 Sep 2 '13 at 11:07

Which book? Please quote and/or link the relevant part. – TrevorD Sep 2 '13 at 12:58

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2 Answers

order by

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4

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I don't think you can say space order (if you did, I might not understand it anyway).

But people do sometimes speak of items listed in size order or weight order, and quite a few of these written instances of in importance order are for the current context.

It's much, much more common to say listed in [ascending/descending] order of importance.

I don't think there are really any grammatical principles involved here. You can modify order with any abstract noun denoting a scalar attribute (capable of being represented by a point on a scale).

But because in practice we normally use the form order of xxxxx, it sounds slightly odd to use the abstract noun as an adjectival modifier. It's just a bit less odd if the noun is short and commonly used in such contexts.

So far as I'm concerned, nothing changes if you use sequence instead of order, or precede your noun by another modifier such as ascending/descending (which is often necessary for clarity).

In general, whatever specific "xxxx = adjectival abstract noun" we look at, order of xxxx is far more common than xxxx order. Except possibly time, which is unique in that it's the only "property" that actually has a built-in concept of scalar "direction" (c.f. time's arrow).