ordinance Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun an authoritative rule
    regulation.
  2. noun a statute enacted by a city government
  3. noun the act of ordaining; the act of conferring (or receiving) holy orders
    ordination.
    • the rabbi's family was present for his ordination

WordNet

Or"di*nance noun
Etymology
OE. ordenance, OF. ordenance, F. ordonnance. See Ordain, and cf. Ordnance, Ordonnance.
Definitions
  1. Orderly arrangement; preparation; provision. Obs. Spenser.
    They had made their ordinance Of victual, and of other purveyance. Chaucer.
  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.
    Thou wilt die by God's just ordinance. Shak.
    By custom and the ordinance of times. Shak.
    Walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. Luke i. 6.
    ✍ 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.).
  3. (Eccl.) An established rite or ceremony.
  4. Rank; order; station. Obs. Shak.
  5. See Ordnance. Ordnance; cannon. Obs. Shak.

Webster 1913