means A systematic, orderly way of doing something — a defined procedure followed to achieve a particular result.

from From Greek 'methodos,' literally 'a following after' or 'pursuit' — built from 'meta-' (after, in pursuit of) and 'hodos' (a way, a road). So a method is quite literally the road you take after a goal, a path traced toward a destination. It traveled through Latin 'methodus' and into English by the 16th century, at first meaning a procedure for teaching or healing before broadening to any orderly way of getting things done.