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ordination

noun

Simple meaning

The act of ordaining.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

awrduhnayshuhn

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ɔɹdəˈneɪʃən

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. The act of ordaining; the act of conferring (or receiving) holy orders

    “The rabbi's family was present for his ordination.”

  2. The act of ordaining or the state of being ordained.

  3. The status of being ordained to a sacred office

  4. buddhism

    The ceremony in which a bhikkhu or bhikkhuni is ordained into the sangha

  5. christianity

    The ceremony in which a priest is consecrated, considered a sacrament in the Catholic and Orthodox churches.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency
Moderately Common
Formality
Technical

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: The act of ordaining; the act of conferring (or receiving) holy orders

Used this way, ordination is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Heard in a sentence
“The rabbi's family was present for his ordination.”
Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use ordination

  • “The rabbi's family was present for his ordination.”noun

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Ordaining

received ordination

Ceremony

episcopal ordinationordination committeepriestly ordination

Other combinations

divine ordinationordination service

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • ordinancenounDerived noun

    An authoritative rule.

  • ordinaryadjectiveDerived adjective

    Not exceptional in any way especially in quality or ability or size or degree.

  • ordinaladjectiveDerived adjective

    Related to The act of ordaining.

  • ordinarilyadverbDerived adverb

    Under normal conditions.

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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.