mandatory
[man-duh-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee]
- authoritatively ordered; obligatory; compulsory: It is mandatory that all students take two years of math.
- pertaining to, of the nature of, or containing a command.
- Law. permitting no option; not to be disregarded or modified: a mandatory clause.
- having received a mandate, as a nation.
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Origin of mandatory
Synonyms
See more synonyms for mandatory on Thesaurus.com1. requisite, exigent.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for mandatory
Contemporary Examples
Now Wisconsin is considering making it mandatory for parents who adopt overseas to have their children “re-adopted” in the state.
For example, at age 10, he completed the local two-year mandatory preparatory program in just one year.
Thankfully, testing performers for STDs is mandatory—or so we thought.
Risky Business or None of Your Business? Gay XXX Films and the Condom QuestionAurora Snow
November 1, 2014
But at the same time, markets involve people in new roles and relationships, which can feel just as mandatory and unequal.
Miliband agreed with Cameron that a “mandatory and comprehensive program of de-radicalization” was needed.
David Cameron's Plan to Fight ISIS Will Likely Involve Racial ProfilingClive Irving
September 2, 2014
Historical Examples
Pentecost was one of the great feasts in Israel, and was of mandatory observance.
Jesus the ChristJames Edward Talmage
Rock's advice carried a mandatory note which was not lost upon his auditor.
El DiabloBrayton Norton
But among the Hebrews the requirement was mandatory and imperative.
The Trial of Jesus from a Lawyer's Standpoint, Vol. I (of II)Walter M. Chandler
They asked that the mandatory should be England, but England had too much on her hands.
The Problem of Foreign PolicyGilbert Murray
March echoed, as people are apt to do with a question that is mandatory and offensive.
The March Family Trilogy, CompleteWilliam Dean Howells
mandatory
- having the nature or powers of a mandate
- obligatory; compulsory
- (of a state) having received a mandate over some territory
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- Also called: mandatary a person or state holding a mandate
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for mandatory
adj.
1570s, "of the nature of a mandate," from Late Latin mandatorius "pertaining to a mandator," from Latin mandatus, past participle of mandare (see mandate (n.)). Sense of "obligatory because commanded" is from 1818.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper