# Ordered vs Unordered List **URL:** \ **Category:** Spec\ **Created:** [December 24, 2015, 5:33am UTC](https://talk.commonmark.org/t/ordered-vs-unordered-list/1945 "2015-12-24T05:33:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 14
**Author:** ![Dmitry](https://cdn.commonmark.org/user_avatar/talk.commonmark.org/dmitry/32/849_2.png) [@Dmitry](https://talk.commonmark.org/u/Dmitry)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2016, 1:24pm UTC](https://talk.commonmark.org/t/ordered-vs-unordered-list/1945/14 "2016-01-01T13:24:20Z")
> [@jgm](#): > > Anyway, this whole thread is about a simple matter of terminology: should we call these things bullet list or unordered lists or itemized lists or something else? I don’t care too much. Most people on this forum seem to share your sentiment. Let me present the (hopefully) ultimate argument. The spec does not refer to _ordered lists_ as _number lists_ (or _numbered lists_, or _numeric lists_), although they are marked exclusively (in core CommonMark) by ASCII decimal digits **in both input and output**. On the other hand, _unordered list_ items are only **rendered** with bullet markers (in most formats, at that), but only have `-`, `+` or `*` markers in the input (at least until [Unicode bullets](http://talk.commonmark.org/t/unicode-character-bullet-u-2022/) are part of the spec). Why _bullet lists_ then? @tin-pot, I hope my “old terminology” remark hasn’t offended you, and I do apologize if it has. I never meant to imply `old == bad` (especially since my proposal seems to be in complete accord with SGML), only that terms should be judged on merit alone ([proof](http://talk.commonmark.org/t/weak-vs-strong-emphasis/1943/3)). Anyway, the older an engineer, the more spec term changes he proposes 😉 --- _[View the full topic](https://talk.commonmark.org/t/ordered-vs-unordered-list/1945)._