In thermodynamics, entropy is often associated with the amount of order or disorder in a thermodynamic system. This stems from Rudolf Clausius' 1862 assertion that any thermodynamic process always "admits to being reduced [reduction] to the alteration in some way or another of the arrangement of the constituent parts of the working body" and that internal work associated with these alterations is quantified energetically by a measure of "entropy" change, according to the following differential expression:

${\displaystyle \int \!{\frac {\delta Q}{T}}\geq 0}$

where Q = motional energy (“heat”) that is transferred reversibly to the system from the surroundings and T = the absolute temperature at which the transfer occurs.

In the years to follow, Ludwig Boltzmann translated these 'alterations of arrangement' into a probabilistic view of order and disorder in gas-phase molecular systems. In the context of entropy, "perfect internal disorder" has often been regarded as describing thermodynamic equilibrium, but since the thermodynamic concept is so far from everyday thinking, the use of the term in physics and chemistry has caused much confusion and misunderstanding.

In recent years, to interpret the concept of entropy, by further describing the 'alterations of arrangement', there has been a shift away from the words 'order' and 'disorder', to words such as 'spread' and 'dispersal'.