- Order of operations - Glossary Term
A convention for simplifying expressions that stipulates that multiplication and division are performed before addition and subtraction and in order from left to right. For example, in 5 – 6 ÷ 2 +7, the division is performed first and the expression becomes 5 – 3 + 7 = 9. If the convention is ignored and the operations are performed in order, the incorrect result, 6.5 is obtained.