на порядок
“на порядок” (na poryadok) — by an order of magnitude in Russian. Phrase, level B1. Novyy pribor tochnee starogo na poryadok — "the new device is an order of magnitude more precise" — ten times, counted in zeros; a word from engineering, and in speech one says simply, ten times. In a live sentence: “Новый прибор точнее старого на порядок” — The new device is an order of magnitude more precise. Written with the characters н, а, п, о, р, я, д, о, к.
In short
| Written in Russian | на порядок |
| Read in Latin letters | na poryadok |
| Translation | by an order of magnitude |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | B1 |
Why it looks that way
Novyy pribor tochnee starogo na poryadok — "the new device is an order of magnitude more precise" — ten times, counted in zeros; a word from engineering, and in speech one says simply, ten times.
A word with a story stays in memory longer than one learned as a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
In a live sentence
A single word almost never appears alone in conversation. A sentence shows where it fits and what stands next to it.
- Новый прибор точнее старого на порядокNovyy pribor tochnee starogo na poryadokThe new device is an order of magnitude more precise
How not to forget this word
Reading a word and remembering it are different jobs. A day later, little survives of a single reading — and that is not bad memory, that is how memory works.
- This has been tested on foreign words too. The difference shows up most when you test yourself a few days later rather than straight away.checked many timesKim & Webb, 2022, Language Learning 72(2) · 48 experiments, 3,411 participants, 98 comparisons.
- Recalling beats re-reading. Covering the translation and trying to remember it does more than reading it ten more times.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · 188 experiments, 272 comparisons. g = 0.61; against plain re-reading 0.51, against passive review 0.93.
- An answer you worked out yourself sticks better than one handed to you.checked many timesBertsch et al., 2007, Memory & Cognition 35(2) · 86 studies, 445 comparisons, d = 0.40.
Frequently asked
How do you say “by an order of magnitude” in Russian?
«на порядок», read “na poryadok”. In a live sentence: “Новый прибор точнее старого на порядок” — The new device is an order of magnitude more precise. Phrase, level B1; written with the characters н, а, п, о, р, я, д, о, к.
How is “на порядок” written in Latin letters?
na poryadok. This is a practical spelling — you need it to read aloud and be understood, not to meet an academic standard.
Why does this word look the way it does?
Novyy pribor tochnee starogo na poryadok — "the new device is an order of magnitude more precise" — ten times, counted in zeros; a word from engineering, and in speech one says simply, ten times. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.