Etymology

From Middle EnglishCategory:English terms inherited from Middle English#ORDAINCategory:English terms derived from Middle English#ORDAIN ordeynen, from Old FrenchCategory:English terms derived from Old French#ORDAIN ordiner, from LatinCategory:English terms derived from Latin#ORDAIN ordinare (“to order”), from ordo (“order”). Doublet of ordinateCategory:English doublets#ORDAIN.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɔɹˈdeɪn/Category:English 2-syllable words#ORDAINCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#ORDAIN
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɔːˈdeɪn/Category:English 2-syllable words#ORDAINCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#ORDAIN

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

  Category:English terms with audio pronunciation#ORDAIN
• Rhymes: -eɪnCategory:Rhymes:English/eɪn#ORDAINCategory:Rhymes:English/eɪn/2 syllables#ORDAIN
• Hyphenation: or‧dain

Verb

ordain (third-person singular simple present ordains, present participle ordaining, simple past and past participle ordained)Category:English lemmas#ORDAINCategory:English verbs#ORDAINCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#ORDAINCategory:Pages with entries#ORDAINCategory:Pages with 1 entry#ORDAIN

1. To prearrange unalterably.
   • 1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], epistle I, London: […] J[ohn] Wilford, […], →OCLC, page 15, lines 248–251:

     What if the Foot, ordain'd the duſt to tread, / Or Hand, to toil, aſpir'd to be the Head? / What if the Head, the Eye, or Ear repin'd / To ſerve mere Engines to the ruling Mind?

     Category:English terms with quotations#ORDAIN

2. To decree.
   • 1961 November, H. G. Ellison, P. G. Barlow, “Journey through France: Part One”, in Trains Illustrated, page 668:

     On once more we swung, bumping uneasily along in the antique narrow-gauge coach, with gloomy woods and gathering night outside, shouts and songs (and quacks) inside—this was not at all the sort of train ordained by the logical strategists in Paris—then grinding to a stop at a mysterious halt which was no more than a nameboard in the pinewoods, without even a footpath leading to it, but nevertheless with a solitary passenger stolidly waiting.

     Category:English terms with quotations#ORDAIN

3. (religionCategory:en:Religion#ORDAIN) To admit into the ministry, for example as a priest, bishop, minister or Buddhist monk, or to authorize as a rabbi.
4. To predestine.

See also

• ordination

Further reading

• “ordain”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “ordain”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “ordain”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• Orinda, Dorian, Rodina, darion, ranoid, NORAID, inroad, Ardoin, donair, radion, dorian, draino