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—serially, adv./sear"ee euhl/, n.1. anything published, broadcast, etc., in short installments at regular intervals, as a novel appearing in successive issues of a magazine.2. Library Science. a publication in any medium issued in successive parts bearing numerical or chronological designation and intended to be continued indefinitely.adj.3. published in installments or successive parts: a serial story.4. pertaining to such publication.5. of, pertaining to, consisting of, or occurring in a series rather than simultaneously: Some societies condemn both polygamy and serial marriages.6. effecting or producing a series; sequential: The police think a serial killer is responsible for five homicides in this city last month.7. Computers.a. of or pertaining to the apparent or actual performance of data-processing operations one at a time (distinguished from parallel).b. of or pertaining to the transmission or processing of each part of a whole in sequence, as each bit of a byte or each byte of a computer word (distinguished from parallel).8. Music. of, pertaining to, or composed in serial technique.[1835-45; < NL serialis. See SERIES, -AL1]
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Film presented in a series of episodes over several months.The serials, usually adventure melodramas, probably developed from the adventure stories published in monthly installments in magazines. The first internationally popular serial, The Perils of Pauline (1914), starring Pearl White, was followed by other serials such as The Hazards of Helen, which ran for 119 episodes (1914–17). Serials focused on action sequences, with cliff-hanging endings for each episode. They remained popular with movie audiences, especially children, into the 1940s.* * *
▪ narrative formata novel or other work appearing (as in a magazine) in parts at intervals. Novels written in the 19th century were commonly published as serials. Many works by Charles Dickens, George Eliot, William Makepeace Thackeray, Anthony Trollope, and others first appeared serially in such magazines as Dickens's Household Words and Thackeray's The Cornhill Magazine.* * *
Universalium. 2010.