Ordination

How to spell ordination

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce ordination

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does ordination mean?

1. nounThe ceremony or act of formally admitting someone to the ministry or priesthood of a religion.

Ordination in a sentence

• After seven years of study, his ordination as a priest took place in the cathedral.

• The diocese announced the ordination of three new deacons for the spring.

Where does ordination come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word descends from the Latin ordinatio, meaning 'a setting in order' or 'an arrangement', which was formed from the verb ordinare, 'to arrange, regulate, or appoint to a duty'. That verb in turn grew out of ordo (stem ordin-), the Latin noun for an 'order', 'row', or 'rank', the same root that gives us 'order' and 'ordinary'. English took the word in during the late Middle Ages, around the fourteenth century, by way of Old French, and at first it carried the broad sense of putting things into a proper sequence. Because the Church used ordinare for formally appointing clergy to their ranks, the word soon narrowed in everyday use to mean the religious ceremony that admits someone to holy orders. The buried -ordin- spelling, rather than the schwa sound you actually hear in the middle, is the clue that ties it back to ordo and helps fix the spelling.

How the word is built

• ordin- (from Latin ordo, ordinis: order, rank)
• -ation (noun of action/state)