ordinance

[ awr-dn-uhns ]

SEE DEFINITION OF ordinance

nounlaw, rule

Synonyms for ordinance

MOST RELEVANT

Antonyms for ordinance

MOST RELEVANT

EXAMPLES FROM THE WEB FOR ORDINANCE

And the sacred "ordinance," with all other proprieties, was left in ruins that day.

"If there were not an ordinance against the hurling of missiles," finished the widower.

"Your Majesty's ordinance as to duelling is receiving our best attention," he assured me.

Where is an ordinance about pleasure similar to that about pain to be found in your laws?

It is the old Icelandic ordinance, but it has gone from Iceland.

Now, on what authority shall this part of the ordinance, viz.

I thought my trouble was over when that ordinance was passed.

"That ordinance was changed two years ago," replied the chairman.

The father of the child, if he be an elder, is expected to participate in the ordinance.

The ordinance of South Carolina had been called a "pacific measure."

WORD ORIGIN

c.1300, "an authoritative direction, decree, or command" (narrower or more transitory than a law), from Old French ordenance (Modern French ordonnance) or directly from Medieval Latin ordinantia, from Latin ordinantem (nominative ordinans), present participle of ordinare "put in order" (see ordain). By early 14c. senses had emerged of "arrangement in ranks or rows" (especially in order of battle), also "warlike provisions, equipment" (a sense now in ordnance).