ordained

[ awr-deynd ]

adjective

1. having been invested with ministerial, priestly, or rabbinical functions:

   Today’s lecturer is an ordained rabbi and a Talmudic scholar.

2. having been decreed, appointed, or formally established by some authority:

   If questioned, I will invoke my constitutionally ordained right to avoid incriminating myself.

3. having been destined or predestined:

   Cortez believed himself the ordained conqueror of the Aztec Empire.

noun

1. Usually the ordained. a person or persons who have been invested with ministerial, priestly, or rabbinical functions, or the category of those so invested:

   Christian leaders, especially the ordained, are expected to reflect and model the faith which they profess and teach.

verb

1. the simple past tense and past participle of ordain ( def ).

Other Words From

• self-or·dained adjective
• un·or·dained adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of ordained¹

ordain ( def ) + -ed ²( def )

Example Sentences

Smyth was a prominent barrister as well as a lay preacher - a member of the congregation who delivers sermons but is not ordained - who ran summer camps for young Christians.

From BBC

Dr Bray said he first became interested in deliverance 27 years ago, when he was ordained.

From BBC

A month-long Vatican summit has ended with a call for women to have more leadership roles in the Catholic Church, but not a call for women to be ordained as priests, as some progressives had hoped at the start of the process.

From BBC

Currently the Catholic Church only allows men to become deacons - ordained ministers who can officiate baptisms, weddings and funerals but not mass, unlike priests.

From BBC

Of course, Trump and his collaborators will be exempted from all religious proscriptions and mandates because whatever he does is, by definition, divinely ordained, which has always been the case for his followers.

From Salon

Related Words

• appointed