ordinance

Other forms of ordinance

plural

ordinances·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about ordinance

What does ordinance mean?

ordinance means "an authoritative rule". That is the primary sense; the word has 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in ordinance?

ordinance has 3 syllables: or-di-nance. The stress falls on "or". In IPA it is /ˈɔɹdənəns/.

What is another word for ordinance?

Close synonyms include regulation, ordination. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is ordinance a common word?

ordinance is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.