ordinance

American  

[awr-dn-uhns] / ˈɔr dn əns /

noun

• ordinances
  plural

1. 

   an authoritative rule or law; a decree or command.

   Synonyms:

   order

2. a public injunction or regulation.

   a city ordinance against excessive horn blowing.

   Synonyms:

   order

3. something believed to have been ordained, as by a deity or destiny.

4. Ecclesiastical.

   1. an established rite or ceremony.

   2. a sacrament.

   3. the communion.

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ordinance British  

/ ˈɔːdɪnəns /

noun

1. an authoritative regulation, decree, law, or practice

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• preordinance
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• ordinances
  plural

Etymology

Origin of ordinance

1275–1325; Middle English ordinaunce (< Old French ordenance ) < Medieval Latin ordinantia, derivative of Latin ordinant- (stem of ordināns ), present participle of ordināre to arrange. See ordination, -ance

Explanation

An ordinance is a local law. Many cities have recently passed ordinances making it illegal to smoke indoors or mandatory for pet owners to curb their dogs. Ordinance can also mean the act of making someone a priest. In both senses, it means a direction or command coming down from a higher authority or an official conference. If you break an ordinance, you'll likely be fined rather than jailed. Remember that an ordinance is a rule meant to keep things in order.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

ordinance ordinances

The El Paso City Council responded with an ordinance requiring future contracts for license plate readers to be approved by the council.

From Salon ● Sep. 28, 2026

Some local business owners urged the council to reject the ordinance, saying the resulting added costs would be onerous and unnecessary.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026

A Shinjuku official supervising holiday rentals told AFP that the district was "planning to revise the current ordinance... to ban private lodging" in residential zones and areas near schools.

From Barron's ● Sep. 7, 2026

Bare and other opponents escalated their fight soon after, filing two suits to amend the ordinance and reverse the rezoning.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026

Dad said they’d been behind the city ordinance limiting dog ownership to two dogs per family.

From "Educated" by Tara Westover

Rather, it has a patchwork of municipal and county zoning ordinances, with some — including in the cities of Burbank and Culver City and Alameda County — requiring buffer zones.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 4, 2026

Camarena's company uses electric tools where they're required to, in cities with ordinances banning petrol tools.

From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026

In 2020 Pennsylvania’s state legislature overrode local ordinances and expanded the definition of “pedestrian” to include robots weighing up to 550 pounds and traveling up to 12 miles an hour.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 18, 2026

As the ecology director at the nonprofit Climate Revolution Action Network, the 20-year-old has helped put a stop to multiple data centers across New Jersey and pushed for ordinances to ban their construction altogether.

From Salon ● Jun. 12, 2026

“Apparently the city ordinances don’t mean anything to them,” he says, “because their lights will be on all night.”

From "Divergent" by Veronica Roth