ordain

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
7
Words With Friends
8
Letters
6
Pronunciation
/ɔɹˈdeɪn/
See all 2 pronunciations
/ɔɹˈdeɪn/ · /ɔːˈdeɪn/

Definition of ordain

4 senses · 1 part of speech · etymology included

verb

  1. To prearrange unalterably.
    “What if the Foot, ordain'd the duſt to tread, / Or Hand, to toil, aſpir'd to be the Head? / What if the Head, the Eye, or Ear repin'd / To ſerve mere Engines to the ruling Mind?”
See all 4 definitions

verb

  1. To prearrange unalterably.
    “What if the Foot, ordain'd the duſt to tread, / Or Hand, to toil, aſpir'd to be the Head? / What if the Head, the Eye, or Ear repin'd / To ſerve mere Engines to the ruling Mind?”
  2. To decree.
    “On once more we swung, bumping uneasily along in the antique narrow-gauge coach, with gloomy woods and gathering night outside, shouts and songs (and quacks) inside—this was not at all the sort of train ordained by the logical strategists in Paris—then grinding to a stop at a mysterious halt which was no more than a nameboard in the pinewoods, without even a footpath leading to it, but nevertheless with a solitary passenger stolidly waiting.”
  3. To admit into the ministry, for example as a priest, bishop, minister or Buddhist monk, or to authorize as a rabbi.
  4. To predestine.

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

From Middle English ordeynen, from Old French ordiner, from Latin ordinare (“to order”), from ordo (“order”). Doublet of ordinate.

Hooks

1 extension · 1 back

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