ordinance
/ˈoɹdɪnəns/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.60 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
3
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Alternative form of ordnance (“military equipment, especially artillery”).
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "Enactive. Expositive. / Art. 57. XIII 2. The Registrative, or say Recordative: exercised, by the arrangements and operations, by which, in conformity to corresponding ordinances and mandates, the accounts, given at different periods by the exercise of the statistic function, are kept in contiguity, and in a regular series, for the purpose of reference and comparison."
- "According to the weatherperson, spring arrived in Hartford, Conn., on Monday, March 20 at 6:34 p.m. But gay people here didn't need a weatherperson to feel the gust of fresh air at a hearing on the proposed gay rights ordinance before the City Council that night at 7:30."
- "Alderman Richard Mell then pushed through antipeddling ordinances in the 33rd and 47th wards."
- "Let all the Battlements their Ordinance fire, / The King shal drinke to Hamlets better breath,"
- "[T]he ſayd gunnes beeing able to hurt but a ſmall diſtance off, and the Iaponians being furniſhed with bꝛazen oꝛdinance vnknowen vnto the Corayans, they pꝛeſently dꝛaue them from their walles, […]"
- "The battered walls of Fort Sumter were reinforced, and heavier caliber ordinance was mounted in the embrasures, doubling the firepower, […]"
Etymology
From Middle English ordinaunce (ca. 1300), from Old French ordenance (“decree, command”) (modern French ordonnance), from Medieval Latin ordinantia, from ordinans, the present participle of ordino (“put in order”) (whence ordain). Doublet of ordonnance.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: ordinaunce, ordenance, ordinantia
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈoɹdɪnəns/
- British English: /ˈɔːdɪnəns/
Usage
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in Law, Religion.