Mandate Meaning
/ˈmændeɪ̯t/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounAn official or authoritative command; an order or injunction; a commission; a judicial precept; an authorization.
nounThe order or authority to do something, as granted to a politician by the electorate.
Sentence Examples
Until 1962, Algeria was a French mandate.
In 1807, President Thomas Jefferson signed a mandate ordering a survey of nation's coast.
It is undemocratic to govern an area without an electoral mandate.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
None
CEFR Practice Quiz
The government's ____ required all schools to teach online during the pandemic.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The new government has a clear ____ to implement its policies and improve the lives of all citizens today.
Word Origin & History
First attested in 1521; borrowed from Latin mandātum (“a charge, order, command, commission, injunction”), substantivized from the neuter forms of mandātus, perfect passive participle of mandō (“to commit to one's charge, order, command, commission, literally to put into one's hands”) (see -ate (noun-forming suffix)), from manus (“hand”) + -dere (“to put”). Sense 3 in Canadian English is likely a semantic loan from French mandat.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Enactive. Expositive. / Art. 57. XIII 2. The Registrative, or say Recordative: exercised, by the arrangements and operations, by which, in conformity to corresponding ordinances and mandates, the accounts, given at different periods by the exercise of the statistic function, are kept in contiguity, and in a regular series, for the purpose of reference and comparison."
— 1830, Jeremy Bentham, Constitutional code: for the use all nations and all governments ..., volume 1, page 251:
"John Tyler and James K. Polk both regarded the election results as a mandate for the annexation of Texas."
— 2002, Leroy G. Dorsey, The Presidency and Rhetorical Leadership, Texas A&M University Press, →ISBN, page 30:
"Instead, May, more sheep than shepherd, has feebly allowed herself to be driven ever further towards an extreme, inflexible, take-it-or-leave-it stance for which she has neither mandate nor credible grounds."
— 2017 March 27, “The Observer view on triggering article 50”, in The Observer:
"Throughout his last mandate, from 1980 to 1984, Mr. Trudeau insisted that we see ourselves solely as Canadians, that we set aside the historic compromises that underlie Canada as a federation."
— 2000 October 6, John Richards, “Pierre Elliott Trudeau: 1919-2000”, in The Globe and Mail, archived from the original on 09 Oct 2019:
"A delegate conference was called, and garages invited to mandate their representatives to vote for or against continuance."
— 1958, The Spectator:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The government's ____ required all schools to teach online during the pandemic.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The new government has a clear ____ to implement its policies and improve the lives of all citizens today.