Search Result for "ordinance": 
Wordnet 3.0

NOUN (3)

1. an authoritative rule;
[syn: regulation, ordinance]

2. a statute enacted by a city government;

3. the act of ordaining; the act of conferring (or receiving) holy orders;
- Example: "the rabbi's family was present for his ordination"
[syn: ordination, ordinance]


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Ordinance \Or"di*nance\, n. [OE. ordenance, OF. ordenance, F. ordonnance. See Ordain, and cf. Ordnance, Ordonnance.] [1913 Webster] 1. Orderly arrangement; preparation; provision. [Obs.] --Spenser. [1913 Webster] They had made their ordinance Of victual, and of other purveyance. --Chaucer. [1913 Webster] 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. [1913 Webster] Thou wilt die by God's just ordinance. --Shak. [1913 Webster] By custom and the ordinance of times. --Shak. [1913 Webster] Walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. --Luke i. 6. [1913 Webster] 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.). [1913 Webster] 3. (Eccl.) An established rite or ceremony. [1913 Webster] 4. Rank; order; station. [Obs.] --Shak. [1913 Webster] 5. [See Ordnance.] Ordnance; cannon. [Obs.] --Shak. [1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

ordinance n 1: an authoritative rule [syn: regulation, ordinance] 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, ordinance]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

90 Moby Thesaurus words for "ordinance": 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
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

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).