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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

ordain.

To prearrange unalterably.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/ɔɹˈdeɪn/General-American/ɔːˈdeɪn/Received-Pronunciation
  1. To prearrange unalterably.

  2. To decree.

  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.

Where this word comes from

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

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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.