A Topical Dictionary: Search for ordinance

Dictionary Results For "ordinance" [?]/[OPML]

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English

Pronunciation

An audio transcript can be found at en-us-ordinance.ogg

Noun

a local law or regulation.
a religious practice or ritual prescribed by the church.

Usage notes

This word is sometimes confused with ordnance, or military weaponry.

Translations

German: Verordnung (1), Ritus (2)
Slovak: nariadenie (1)
Spanish: ordenanza (1)

fa:ordinance fr:ordinance io:ordinance it:ordinance hu:ordinance ta:ordinance te:ordinance vi:ordinance zh:ordinance

GNU Project's publication of CIDE, the Collaborative International Dictionary of English Ordinance \Or"di*nance\, n. [OE. ordenance, OF. ordenance, F.
ordonnance. See Ordain, and cf. Ordnance, Ordonnance.]
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1. Orderly arrangement; preparation; provision. [Obs.]
--Spenser.
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They had made their ordinance
Of victual, and of other purveyance. --Chaucer.
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2. A rule established by authority; a permanent rule of
action; a statute, law, regulation, rescript, or accepted
usage; an edict or decree; esp., a local law enacted by a
municipal government; as, a municipal ordinance.
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Thou wilt die by God's just ordinance. --Shak.
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By custom and the ordinance of times. --Shak.
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Walking in all the commandments and ordinances of
the Lord blameless. --Luke i. 6.
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Note: Acts of Parliament are sometimes called ordinances;
also, certain colonial laws and certain acts of
Congress under Confederation; as, the ordinance of 1787
for the government of the territory of the United
States northwest of the Ohio River; the colonial
ordinance of 1641, or 1647. This word is often used in
Scripture in the sense of a law or statute of sovereign
power. --Ex. xv. 25. --Num. x. 8. --Ezra iii. 10. Its
most frequent application now in the United States is
to laws and regulations of municipal corporations.
--Wharton (Law Dict.).
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3. (Eccl.) An established rite or ceremony.
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4. Rank; order; station. [Obs.] --Shak.
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5. [See Ordnance.] Ordnance; cannon. [Obs.] --Shak.
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WordNet ordinance
n 1: an authoritative rule [syn: regulation]
2: a statute enacted by a city government
3: the act of ordaining; the act of conferring (or receiving)
holy orders; "the rabbi's family was present for his
ordination" [syn: ordination]

Moby Dictionary
act , appointment , bill , brevet , bull , bylaw , canon , ceremonial ,
ceremony , code , commandment , convention , declaration , decree ,
decree-law , decreement , decretal , decretum , dictate , dictation ,
dictum , diktat , duty , edict , edictum , enactment , fiat , form ,
form of worship , formality , formula , formulary , function ,
general principle , golden rule , guideline , guiding principle ,
holy rite , imperative , institution , ipse dixit , jus , law ,
legislation , lex , liturgy , maxim , measure , mitzvah ,
mode of worship , moral , mystery , norm , observance , office ,
order of worship , ordonnance , practice , precept , prescribed form ,
prescript , prescription , principium , principle , proclamation ,
pronouncement , pronunciamento , regulation , rescript , rite , ritual ,
ritual observance , rituality , rubric , rule , ruling , sacrament ,
sacramental , senatus consult , senatus consultum , service ,
settled principle , solemnity , standard , standing order , statute ,
tenet , ukase , working principle , working rule

ORDINANCE, legislation. A law, a statute, a decree. 2. This word is more usually applied to the laws of a corporation, than to the acts of the legislature; as the ordinances of the city of Philadelphia. The following account of the difference between a statute and an ordinance is extracted from Bac. Ab. Statute, A. "Where the proceeding consisted only of a petition from parliament, and an answer from the king, these were entered on the parliament roll; and if the matter was of a public nature, the whole was then styled an ordinance; if, however, the petition and answer were not only of a public, but a novel nature, they were then formed into an act by the king, with the aid of his council and judges, and entered on the statute roll." See Harg. & But. Co. Litt. l59 b, notis; 3 Reeves, Hist. Eng. Law, 146. 3. According to Lord Coke, the difference between a statute and an ordinance is, that the latter has not had the assent of the king, lords, and commons, but is made merely by two of those powers. 4 Inst. 25. See Barr. on Stat. 41, note (x).