noun

collation

kuh-LAY-shun/kəˈleɪʃn/

The arrangement of items in a set order.

Careful collation puts the tree photographs in order from sapling to maturity.

Close-up tabletop process of arranging illustrated archival photograph cards into chronological order: a series showing one sapling growing into a mature tree, cards gathered from a scattered pile into a neat left-to-right sequence.

Etymology

colLatinwith, together

+latLatinto bear, carry

+ionLatinact or process

The underlying image is carrying things together so they can be compared. The related verb also came to mean checking pages for correct arrangement, connecting comparison with the orderly gathering of information.

In context

European Association of Archaeologists33:44

more than 10 year old synthesis of british pre-history based on the collation of decades of development-led archaeology

Tales of the Unexpected. Creativity in Archaeological Interpretation

More examples

The printer handles collation automatically when we print multiple copies.
Alphabetical collation makes the customer files easier to find.
The database supports different collations for sorting names in different languages.

Forms

collation · collations

collate verb — To arrange items in a set order.

Similar words

sorting: Sorting can group items by category without establishing a sequence.
arrangement: Arrangement can describe spatial placement rather than a fixed sequence.