ordain
Americanverb (used with object)
-
ordains,
present (3rd person singular)
-
ordained,
past participle, past
-
ordaining
present participle
-
to invest with ministerial, priestly, or rabbinical functions.
-
to enact or establish by law, edict, etc..
to ordain a new type of government.
-
to decree; give orders for.
He ordained that the restrictions were to be lifted.
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(of God, fate, etc.) to destine or predestine.
Fate had ordained the meeting.
- Synonyms:
- predetermine
verb (used without object)
-
ordains,
present (3rd person singular)
-
ordained,
past participle, past
-
ordaining
present participle
-
to order or command.
Thus do the gods ordain.
-
to select for or appoint to an office.
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to invest someone with sacerdotal functions.
verb
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to consecrate (someone) as a priest; confer holy orders upon
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(may take a clause as object) to decree, appoint, or predestine irrevocably
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(may take a clause as object) to order, establish, or enact with authority
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obsolete to select for an office
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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ordainernoun
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ordainmentnoun
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self-ordainernoun
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reordainverb (used with object)
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superordainverb (used without object)
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ordainableadjective
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unordainableadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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ordainsimple
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ordainssimple
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have ordainedperfect
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has ordainedperfect
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am ordainingprogressive
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are ordainingprogressive
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is ordainingprogressive
-
have been ordainingperfect progressive
-
has been ordainingperfect progressive
Past
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ordainedsimple
-
had ordainedperfect
-
was ordainingprogressive
-
were ordainingprogressive
-
had been ordainingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of ordain
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English ordeinen, from Old French ordener, from Latin ordināre “to order, arrange, appoint”; see ordination
Explanation
To ordain is to make someone a minister, priest, monk, or other member of the clergy. In the Catholic church, for example, a bishop ordains new priests. When you say that people have been ordained, you usually mean that they've been invested with special religion-related powers. In many Buddhist traditions, senior monks ordain new monks and, increasingly, female monks (or nuns) as well. Occasionally, this chiefly religious verb is used to mean "officially declare" or "decree" in a secular matter, as when a court ordains desegregation.
Vocabulary lists containing ordain
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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Preamble to the U.S. Constitution (1787)
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Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
In 2008, it voted to ordain women as bishops, and many recent meetings have included discussion of same-sex marriages.
From BBC ● Feb. 10, 2025
It happened in the wake of Saddleback’s determination as an autonomous local church to ordain female ministers — not as senior pastors of the church, but as associate ministers of the church.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 26, 2023
It also acknowledged the need to train more Afaan Oromo speaking priests and agreed to ordain more ethnic Oromos among high ranking clergy, it said in a statement.
From Reuters ● Feb. 16, 2023
The Sydney diocese does not bless same-sex marriages or ordain women as priests.
From New York Times ● Sep. 1, 2022
Then Scythe Mandela said, “Ransom Paladini, we have chosen not to ordain you as a scythe. Wherever life leads you, we wish you well. You are dismissed.”
From "Scythe" by Neal Shusterman
For now, the government seems confident that experts can indeed devise a safe, rigorous and consistent system for deciding which patients live and which ones die, as the statute ordains.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 16, 2021
Some are even considering leaving the Catholic Church to join other communities, including a movement that ordains women priests.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 7, 2021
It also suggested that future appointments might be influenced by a bishop's views on women clergy, saying that "many dioceses will want to insist that their diocesan bishop should be someone who ordains women".
From Reuters ● May 24, 2013
Her writing has always been hostile to the idea of a primitive, “natural” womanhood that ordains us to behave in certain ways.
From Slate ● Apr. 25, 2012
I bent above each one, and gently said: ‘Wake from your sleep: no more sweet slumber. Come, we sail: the Lady Kirke so ordains it.’
From "The Odyssey" by Homer
The Chosen Ones Espenson cites are part of a destiny ordained either by their bloodline or some greater lineage.
From Salon ● Aug. 16, 2026
A onetime seminarian — he left three years shy of being ordained a Catholic priest — Reilly was no saint.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 26, 2026
According to the diocese, Oakley was born in Stourbridge in the West Midlands and was ordained in 1980.
From BBC ● Jun. 24, 2026
Word of the country’s natural grandeur and abundant resources seeped back east, and by the mid-1800s Manifest Destiny—the supposedly divinely ordained quest to expand across the whole continent—became a rallying cry.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 20, 2026
It was a condition of nearly all Oxford and Cambridge fellowships that the holder was ordained, so nearly every academic in England was a clergyman.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
In 1988, Pope John Paul II issued a similar appeal to that of Pope Leo but failed to stop the society from ordaining bishops.
From Barron's ● Jul. 1, 2026
In 1787-91, Americans dramatically strengthened their union by ordaining a new-minted document, the Constitution, which repeatedly referred to American citizenship.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2025
And finally, in 1787, one of the declared objects for ordaining and establishing the ”Constitution” was "to form a more perfect Union."
From Salon ● Dec. 16, 2023
Regarding two of the most touchy subjects, ordaining women and providing what Duddy-Burke calls “appropriate and respectful pastoral care” of LGBTQ+ Catholics, Etienne has tread a middle ground.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 10, 2023
The bishops, who are nominated by the ministers, appoint the pastors to their stations, and have the power of removing them when they think fit, and of ordaining the deacons as well as the ministers.
From Christian Sects in the Nineteenth Century by Caroline Frances Cornwallis
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
