每日单词：ordain

ordain

英 [ɔː'deɪn] 美 [ɔːr'deɪn]

vt.任命；授以圣职；命令；注定 vi.颁发命令

◉词源

“Ordain”源自拉丁语“ordinare”，意为“安排”或“命令”，由“ordo”（秩序、序列）衍生。12世纪经古法语“ordener”进入英语，最初指宗教任命（如授圣职），后扩展为规定、命运安排等含义。演变路径：拉丁语 ordinare → 古法语 ordener → 中古英语 ordainen（约12世纪）。

◉外刊例句

·The Guardian, March 2023

She was ordained as a priest last year.

她去年被任命为牧师。

·The New York Times, June 2024

Fate seemed to ordain their meeting.

命运似乎注定了他们的相遇。

·BBC News, August 2025

The law ordains strict penalties.

法律规定了严厉的惩罚。

◉经典名著

·William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet (1597)

Heaven ordained their tragic love.

上天注定了他们的悲剧爱情。

·John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667)

God ordained man’s free will.

上帝赋予了人类自由意志。

·Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)

Society ordained strict rules for her.

社会为她规定了严格的规则。

◉Usage Examples

(1) He was an ordained priest.

(2) She was ordained the first woman priest of her church.

(3) The emperor ordained that all foreigners be expelled.

(4) The judge ordained that he should pay the debts.

(5) Fate had ordained that he should die in poverty.

(1) 他被委任为牧师。

(2) 她被委任为她教会的第一位女牧师。

(3) 皇帝下令将所有外国人驱逐出境。

(4) 法院判决由他偿还债务。

(5) 命中注定他得死于贫困。

◉Usage Notes

An ordained minister is one who's been appointed to the job by a special church authority. If you've ever had to sit through a lecture about the evils of too much TV, you know that a person doesn't need to be ordained in order to preach.

When you say that people have been ordained, you usually mean that they've been invested with special powers. After a priest has been ordained in the Catholic church, he can perform sacraments. Such priests are higher up in the church hierarchy than others, and those below them can be called their “subordinates,” a word also related to ordain.

◉柯林斯词典

1. [VERB 动词]授予…圣职；任命…为神职人员 When someone is ordained, they are made a member of the clergy in a religious ceremony. [be V-ed n] [be V-ed] [V n] [V n as n] [V n to n] [V-ed]

He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1982...

他于1982年被任命为天主教司铎。

Women have been ordained for many years in the Church of Scotland...

苏格兰长老会多年前就已开始任命女性担任圣职。

He ordained his own priests, and threatened to ordain bishops...

他自行任命了牧师，还扬言要任命主教。

The church's ruling body voted to ordain women as priests.

该教会的管理机构投票通过接纳女性为牧师。

...plans to ordain women to the priesthood...

任命女性为牧师的计划

He became a fully ordained monk at the age of 20.

他在20岁的时候成了正式的修道士。

2. [VERB 动词]规定；决定；主宰 If some authority or power ordains something, they decide that it should happen or be in existence. [V that] [be V-ed] [V n] [FORMAL 正式]

Destiny has ordained that they are who they are...

命运已经决定了他们的性格为人。

His rule was ordained by heaven...

他的统治乃是天命。

The recession may already be severe enough to ordain structural change.

这次经济衰退可能已经严重到必须进行体制变革的地步了。