rearrange

Rearrange is a verb meaning to arrange again or to alter the order, layout, or structure of something that already exists. It implies keeping the components the same, but changing their positions or relationships to each other.

As a noun, rearrangement refers to the act or result of rearranging. The term is used across domains to describe processes that modify order without changing the underlying elements.

The word combines the prefix re- with arrange. Arrange descends from Old French arranger, from Latin arrāngāre meaning to set in order.

In everyday life, people rearrange furniture, files, or schedules to improve flow, space, or efficiency. In linguistics and computing, rearranging may refer to changing word order in a sentence, or reordering data or instructions. In chemistry, a rearrangement reaction involves structural reorganization of atoms within a molecule to form a different compound. In mathematics, rearrangement can describe changing the order of terms in a series or sequence, often studied in the context of convergence and the rearrangement inequality. In music, a rearrangement is a new version of a composition that alters instrumentation, harmony, or rhythm while preserving the melody.

Alternative terms related to rearranging include reordering and reshuffling, and related concepts include anagram for letter rearrangement and sorting in computer science.