More complex rate laws have been described as being mixed order if they approximate to the laws for more than one order at different concentrations of the chemical species involved. For example, a rate law of the form  represents concurrent first order and second order reactions (or more often concurrent pseudo-first order and second order) reactions, and can be described as mixed first and second order. For sufficiently large values of [A] such a reaction will approximate second order kinetics, but for smaller [A] the kinetics will approximate first  order (or pseudo-first order). As the reaction progresses, the reaction can change from second order to first order as reactant is consumed.
Another type of mixed-order rate law has a denominator of two or more terms, often because the identity of the rate-determining step depends on the values of the concentrations. An example is the oxidation of an alcohol to a ketone by hexacyanoferrate (III) ion [Fe(CN)] with ruthenate (VI) ion (RuO) as catalyst. For this reaction, the rate of disappearance of hexacyanoferrate (III) is  
This is zero-order with respect to hexacyanoferrate (III) at the onset of the reaction (when its concentration is high and the ruthenium catalyst is quickly regenerated), but changes to first-order when its concentration decreases and the regeneration of catalyst becomes rate-determining.
Notable mechanisms with mixed-order rate laws with two-term denominators include:
* Michaelis-Menten kinetics for enzyme-catalysis: first-order in substrate (second-order overall) at low substrate concentrations, zero order in substrate (first-order overall) at higher substrate concentrations; and
* the Lindemann mechanism for unimolecular reactions: second-order at low pressures, first-order at high pressures.