Library / English Dictionary

MANDATE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

The commission that is given to a government and its policies through an electoral victory

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("mandate" is a kind of...):

commission; commissioning (the act of granting authority to undertake certain functions)

Domain category:

government; political science; politics (the study of government of states and other political units)

Derivation:

mandate (assign under a mandate)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A document giving an official instruction or command

Synonyms:

authorisation; authorization; mandate

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("mandate" is a kind of...):

instrument; legal document; legal instrument; official document ((law) a document that states some contractual relationship or grants some right)

Attribute:

authorised; authorized (endowed with authority)

unauthorised; unauthorized (not endowed with authority)

Domain category:

jurisprudence; law (the collection of rules imposed by authority)

Derivation:

mandate (make mandatory)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A territory surrendered by Turkey or Germany after World War I and put under the tutelage of some other European power until they are able to stand by themselves

Synonyms:

mandate; mandatory

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Hypernyms ("mandate" is a kind of...):

district; dominion; territorial dominion; territory (a region marked off for administrative or other purposes)

Instance hyponyms:

Palestine (a former British mandate on the east coast of the Mediterranean; divided between Jordan and Israel in 1948)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Assign authority to

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "mandate" is one way to...):

assign; delegate; depute; designate (give an assignment to (a person) to a post, or assign a task to (a person))

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Somebody ----s something to somebody

Derivation:

mandator (an authority who issues a mandate)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Make mandatory

Example:

the new director of the school board mandated regular tests

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "mandate" is one way to...):

dictate; order; prescribe (issue commands or orders for)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

mandate (a document giving an official instruction or command)

mandatory (required by rule)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Assign under a mandate

Example:

mandate a colony

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "mandate" is one way to...):

assign; delegate; depute; designate (give an assignment to (a person) to a post, or assign a task to (a person))

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something to somebody

Derivation:

mandatary (the recipient of a mandate)

mandate (the commission that is given to a government and its policies through an electoral victory)

mandator (an authority who issues a mandate)

mandatory (the recipient of a mandate)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Kill or be killed, eat or be eaten, was the law; and this mandate, down out of the depths of Time, he obeyed.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Having issued this mandate with as much potentiality as if she had been a recognized authority in the house ever since it had been a house, and having looked out to confront the amazed Peggotty coming along the passage with a candle at the sound of a strange voice, Miss Betsey shut the door again, and sat down as before: with her feet on the fender, the skirt of her dress tucked up, and her hands folded on one knee.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

An institute within the National Institutes of Health that is mandated to conduct and support biomedical and behavioral research and research training in the normal and disordered processes of hearing, balance, smell, taste, voice, speech, and language.

(National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, NCI Thesaurus)

Universal access to electricity and adequate and affordable housing are prerequisites to accessing cooling technologies, and are closely linked to meeting several of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) mandated by the UN, the study notes.

(Billions at risk from heat stress at home, SciDev.Net)

A self-regulating entity mandated by federal law to be established at an institution that uses laboratory animals for research or instructional purposes to oversee and evaluate all aspects of the institution's animal use and care program.

(Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, NCI Thesaurus)

It was the mandate of his instinct that that head must be free.

(White Fang, by Jack London)