govern.
To make and administer the public policy and affairs of; to exercise sovereign authority in.
Meaning & usage
To make and administer the public policy and affairs of; to exercise sovereign authority in.
The old king governed the land wisely.
To exercise political authority; to run a government.
To control the actions or behavior of; to keep under control; to restrain.
Govern yourselves like civilized people.
a student who could not govern his impulses
To exercise a deciding or determining influence on.
Chance governs the outcome of many card games.
To have or exercise a determining influence.
To handle, to manage, to oversee (a matter, an affair, a household, etc.).
To control the speed, flow etc. of; to regulate.
a valve that governs fuel intake
To direct the course of, to guide in some direction, to steer.
To look after, to take care of, to tend to (someone or some plant).
To manage, to control, to work (a tool or mechanical device).
To require that a certain preposition, grammatical case, etc. be used with a word.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English governen, governe, from Anglo-Norman and Old French governer, guverner, from Latin gubernō, from Ancient Greek κυβερνάω (kubernáō, “to steer, drive, govern”). Displaced native Old English wealdan, whence modern dialectical English wald (“to govern”).
The act of governing
Where this word comes from
From Middle English governen, governe, from Anglo-Norman and Old French governer, guverner, from Latin gubernō, from Ancient Greek κυβερνάω (kubernáō, “to steer, drive, govern”). Displaced native Old English wealdan, whence modern dialectical English wald (“to govern”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.