Ordained

How to spell ordained

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce ordained

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does ordained mean?

1. verbFormally appointed to a religious office, such as priest or minister.
2. verbOfficially decreed, ordered, or established by an authority.

Ordained in a sentence

• She was ordained as a priest after years of theological training.

• The new statute ordained that all shops must close on public holidays.

• The bishop ordained three new deacons during the morning service.

• The council ordained stricter limits on parking near the school.

Where does ordained come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word traces back to the Latin ordinare, meaning 'to set in order' or 'to arrange', which was built on ordo, ordinis, the Latin noun for 'order, rank, or row'. English took it in through Old French ordener during the 1200s, and at first it carried the broad sense of putting things into proper arrangement or appointing someone to a role. From there it specialised in two directions: the religious act of formally appointing a person to holy office, and the more general sense of decreeing or commanding by authority. The same ordo root sits inside everyday relatives like 'order', 'ordinary', and 'coordinate', which is a helpful reminder that the spelling keeps the 'ord' core intact. The trap for writers is the unstressed middle: the word sounds like 'or-DAINED', so the ending is spelled -ained, not -ened or -aned.

How the word is built

• ord- (from Latin ordo: order, rank)
• -ain (from Latin -inare, to arrange)
• -ed (past tense)