ordain
verb
Simple meaning
To admit into the ministry, for example as a priest, bishop, minister or Buddhist monk, or to authorize as a rabbi.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
awrdaynSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɔɹˈdeɪn
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
religion
To admit into the ministry, for example as a priest, bishop, minister or Buddhist monk, or to authorize as a rabbi.
To prearrange unalterably.
To predestine.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Rare
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To admit into the ministry, for example as a priest, bishop, minister or Buddhist monk, or to authorize as a rabbi.
Used this way, ordain is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a religious use: it carries the weight of tradition and ceremony.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Religion/spirituality
- Historical writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use ordain
- “The King ordained the persecution and expulsion of the Jews.”verb
- “The minister was ordained only last month.”verb
- “He was ordained in the Church.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: to admit into the ministry
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.