ORDAIN

ordain

(verb) issue an order

ordain, consecrate, ordinate, order

(verb) appoint to a clerical posts; “he was ordained in the Church”

ordain

(verb) invest with ministerial or priestly authority; “The minister was ordained only last month”

ordain, enact

(verb) order by virtue of superior authority; decree; “The King ordained the persecution and expulsion of the Jews”; “the legislature enacted this law in 1985”

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Etymology

Verb

ordain (third-person singular simple present ordains, present participle ordaining, simple past and past participle ordained)

To prearrange unalterably.

To decree.

To admit into the ministry of a religion, for example as a priest, bishop, minister or Buddhist monk, or to authorize as a rabbi.

To predestine.

Synonyms

• foresay

Anagrams

• Ardoin, Dorian, NORAID, Orinda, Rodina, donair, draino, inroad, radion, ranoid

Source: Wiktionary


Or*dain", v. t. [imp. & p. p. Ordained; p. pr. & vb. n. Ordaining.] Etym: [OE. ordeinen, OF. ordener, F. ordonner, fr. L. ordinare, from ordo, ordinis, order. See Order, and cf. Ordinance.]

1. To set in order; to arrange according to rule; to regulate; to set; to establish. "Battle well ordained." Spenser. The stake that shall be ordained on either side. Chaucer.

2. To regulate, or establish, by appointment, decree, or law; to constitute; to decree; to appoint; to institute. Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month. 1 Kings xii. 32. And doth the power that man adores ordain Their doom Byron.

3. To set apart for an office; to appoint. Being ordained his special governor. Shak.

4. (Eccl.)

Definition: To invest with ministerial or sacerdotal functions; to introduce into the office of the Christian ministry, by the laying on of hands, or other forms; to set apart by the ceremony of ordination. Meletius was ordained by Arian bishops. Bp. Stillingfleet.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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Word of the Day

6 May 2025

HEEDLESS

(adjective) marked by or paying little heed or attention; “We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics”--Franklin D. Roosevelt; “heedless of danger”; “heedless of the child’s crying”


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Coffee Trivia

The earliest credible evidence of coffee-drinking as the modern beverage appeared in modern-day Yemen. In the middle of the 15th century in Sufi shrines where coffee seeds were first roasted and brewed for drinking. The Yemenis procured the coffee beans from the Ethiopian Highlands.

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