Order (distinction)

An order is a visible honour awarded by a sovereign state, monarch, dynastic royal house or organisation to a recipient, typically in recognition of individual , that often comes with distinctive insignia such as collars, badges, and sashes worn by recipients.

Modern honour systems of state orders and dynastic orders emerged from the culture of orders of chivalry of the Middle Ages, which in turn emerged from the Catholic religious orders.

The word order (Latin: ordo), in the case referred to in this article, can be traced back to the chivalric orders, including the military orders, which in turn trace the name of their organisation back to that of the Catholic religious orders.

The modern distinction between orders and decorations is somewhat vague, except that most historic chivalric orders imply a membership in a group, typically a confraternity. In a few exclusive European orders, membership is or was also limited in number. Decorations seldom have such limitations. Orders often come in multiple classes, including knights and dames in imitation of the original chivalric orders, which may or may not be parallelled in decorations.

Modern national orders, orders of merit, and decorations, emerged from the culture of chivalric orders established in the Middle Ages, originally the military orders of the Middle Ages and the crusades, who in turn grew out of the original Catholic religious orders.

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