ordinance

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. An authoritative command or order.
2. n. A custom or practice established by long usage.
3. n. A Christian rite, especially the Eucharist.
4. n. A statute or regulation, especially one enacted by a city government.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. Ordering; disposition; arrangement.
2. n. Orderly disposition; proper arrangement; regular order; due proportion.
3. n. Order; rank; dignity; position.
4. n. Preparation; provision; array; arrangement.
5. n. An appliance; an appointment; an arrangement; equipment: as, ordinance of war; hence, specifically, cannon; ordnance. See ordnance.
6. n. Established state or condition; regular or established mode of action; proceeding as regulated by authority.
7. n. Regulation by authority; a command; an appointment; an order; that which is ordained, ordered, or appointed; a rule or law established by authority; edict; decree, as of the Supreme Being or of Fate; law or statute made by human authority; authoritative regulation. In modern usage the term covers all the standing regulations adopted by a municipal corporation; or, in other words, the local laws and internal regulations passed by the governing body, and calculated to have permanent or continuous operation, as distinguished from resolutions, which are orders of temporary character or intended to meet a special occasion. Thus, an order forbidding fireworks in the streets is an ordinance; one appropriating money for celebrating a holiday is a resolution. Abbreviated ord.
8. n. Eccles., a religious ceremony, rite, or practice established by authority: as, the ordinance of baptism.
9. n. In architecture, arrangement; system; order: said of a part or detail as well as of an architectural whole.
10. n. Synonyms Edict, Decree, etc. See law.
11. To arm with ordnance.

Wiktionary

1. n. a local law or regulation.
2. n. a religious practice or ritual prescribed by the church.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. obsolete Orderly arrangement; preparation; provision.
2. n. A rule established by authority; a permanent rule of action; a statute, law, regulation, rescript, or accepted usage; an edict or decree; esp., a local law enacted by a municipal government.
3. n. (Eccl.) An established rite or ceremony.
4. n. obsolete Rank; order; station.
5. n. obsolete Ordnance; cannon.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. an authoritative rule
2. n. a statute enacted by a city government
3. n. the act of ordaining; the act of conferring (or receiving) holy orders