Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To invest with ministerial or priestly authority; confer holy orders on.
- v. To authorize as a rabbi.
- v. To order by virtue of superior authority; decree or enact.
- v. To prearrange unalterably; predestine: by fate ordained. See Synonyms at dictate.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To set or place in proper order; arrange; prepare; make ready; hence, to construct or constitute with a view to a certain end.
- To set up; establish; institute; appoint: order.
- To dispose or regulate according to will or purpose; prescribe; give orders or directions for; command; enact; decree: used especially of the decrees of Providence or of fate; hence, to destine.
- To set apart for an office; select; appoint.
- To destine, set apart, etc., to a certain spiritual condition, or to the fulfilment of a certain providential purpose: especially in Biblical usage.
- Eccles., to invest with ministerial or sacerdotal functions; confer holy orders upon; appoint to or formally introduce into the ministerial office: used especially of admission to the priesthood, as distinguished from making a deacon and consecrating a bishop. See ordination, 2.
- Synonyms To destine, enact, order, prescribe, enjoin. In regard to the making of human laws or the acts of Providence, ordain is the most weighty and solemn word in use: as, the Mayor and Common Council do ordain; “the powers that be are ordained of God,”
Wiktionary
- v. to prearrange unalterably
- v. to decree
- v. to admit into the ministry of the Christian church
- v. to authorize as a rabbi
- v. to predestine
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To set in order; to arrange according to rule; to regulate; to set; to establish.
- v. To regulate, or establish, by appointment, decree, or law; to constitute; to decree; to appoint; to institute.
- v. To set apart for an office; to appoint.
- v. (Eccl.) 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.
WordNet 3.0
- v. invest with ministerial or priestly authority
- v. appoint to a clerical posts
- v. issue an order
- v. order by virtue of superior authority; decree.
Etymologies
- From Middle English, from Old French, from Latin ordinare ("to order"), from ordo ("order"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English ordeinen, from Old French ordener, ordein-, from Latin ōrdināre, to organize, appoint to office, from ōrdō, ōrdin-, order; see ar- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“In reference to the word ordain, we shall speak under the sixth proposition.”
“The word "ordain" -- then and now -- means "to order by virtue of superior authority," meaning "We the people" are the superior authority.”
The Huffington Post: Jackson Williams: Glenn Beck, Unhinged in Texas
“To deny that the elders have the right to ordain is to run directly against the expressed declaration of the Bible.”
“The best known inside the church was the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, a highly traditional French cleric who took his differences with Rome into open schism and was excommunicated, along with the four men he dared to "ordain" as bishops, in the year of our lord 1970.”
“We must never forget that it is "We the people ..." who have the power, the genius and the vision to "ordain" a better world for all humanity and achieve what was once thought to be beyond humanity's grasp: "a world that works for everyone.”
“Give-Get Nation: Born on the Fourth of July yahooBuzzArticleHeadline = 'Give-Get Nation: Born on the Fourth of July'; yahooBuzzArticleSummary = 'Article: "We the people ..." who have the power, the genius and the vision to "ordain" a better world for all humanity and achieve what was once thought to be beyond humanity\'s grasp: "a world that works for everyone."”
“Nowadays, that is more true than ever, in the Catholic Church and particularly in those ecclesial communities that "ordain" women to the ministry—so much so that, if we did have women's ordination in the two communions that can plausibly claim historical and confessional continuity with the Church of the Apostles, I suspect the demographics would not take terribly long to yield a "priesthood" composed disproportionately of middle-aged and elderly women.”
“[240: 1] The word [Greek: katastêsês], here translated "ordain," should rather be rendered _constitute_, or _establish_.”
The Ancient Church Its History, Doctrine, Worship, and Constitution
“The diocese prays that all those involved in this attempt to 'ordain' ` Roman Catholic Womenpriests will be reconciled with the church, and that the harm and division caused will be healed," the Diocese of Venice, Fla., said in a statement.”
“But the reaction suggests that many readers didn't read the story the same way I did, especially once they had seen the problematic headline, and so I decided to rethink the use of a few words - especially "ordain" and "ordination" - in the story about the actual event.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘ordain’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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If it ain't broke
paint, quaint, maintop, saint, faint, dainty, ain't, unacquainted, the rain in Spain..., ruzuzutainment, 1 Mountain Artill..., Ukraine and 81 more...
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NTDW1
template, modal, sublingual, tandem, polycentric, septuagenarian, token, irrevocable, denotive, augural, aberrant, phlebotomy and 1188 more...
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Aequoria's list
affect, deleterious, nuance, pliant, verbatim, pertinent, latter, municipality, provincial, voyeuristic, circumlocution, wane and 798 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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Misc. Words.
Words I like to use, words I like but may forget.
corrosion, astonish, solace, ferment, continuum, kinesthetic, permeate, repose, caprice, cardinal, discourse, surrender and 610 more...
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miltonic
liberty, froth-becurlèd, host, huge-bellied, aghast, rills, gladsom, wrathfull, ordain, thunder-clasping, ruddy, warble and 264 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
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Sweet Smoke of Rhetoric
The ones with which I flavor my speech, and the ones I love to find peppered in literature.
perspicacious, acerbic, vituperation, loquacious, castigate, vitriolic, scintillating, provenance, frolic, attendant, pursuant, epistemology and 313 more...
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Dain's Words
rabble, terminus, archaic, atavism, demiurge, waylay, syzygy, jocoserious, quark, entropy, cinnabar, shamble and 912 more...
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amazing grace
hymn, nave, narthex, chapel, novice, asperges, altar, annunciation, liturgical, litany, nicene creed, cloister and 209 more...
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fitting words
a list of words from the indo european root ar- and variations : to fit together
ambry, rede, coarctate, anarthrous, artiodactyl, exordium, harmony, army, armoire, arm, armada, armadillo and 349 more...
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SAT Words
abhor, bigot, counterfeit, enfranchise, hamper, kindle, noxious, placid, remuneration, talisman, abrasive, bilk and 278 more...
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ash
ash
abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abide, abject, abjure and 4874 more...
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MY LIST
ABHOR, BIGOT, KINDLE, NOXIOUS, BILK, NUANCE, ENGENDER, BILLOWING, COWER, HARANGUE, REPLETE, ABROGATE and 518 more...
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