Govern

How to spell govern

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce govern

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does govern mean?

1. verbTo rule, control, or direct the affairs of a country, organisation, or system.

Govern in a sentence

• The elected party will govern the country for the next four years.

• Clear policies help managers govern a large workforce fairly.

Where does govern come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin verb gubernare, which literally meant 'to steer a ship' before it broadened to mean 'to direct' or 'to rule'. The Romans themselves had borrowed it from the Greek kybernan, meaning 'to steer' or 'to pilot a vessel', a maritime image of a captain guiding a boat with a rudder. English took the word in the 1200s through Old French governer, dropping the original Latin 'b' along the way, which is why we write 'govern' rather than 'gubern'. That same Greek root for steering survives in the modern word 'cybernetics' and even in 'cyber', so a governor was first imagined as someone holding the tiller of the ship of state. Knowing the steering image helps fix the spelling, since the unstressed middle vowel is written 'e' (gov-ERN), even though the ear hears only a faint schwa.

How the word is built

• govern (from Latin gubernare: to steer or direct)