mandate

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The authority to act, given to a government or leader by the people who voted for them.

   The new president claimed a clear mandate to reform the economy.

2. 2
   verb

   To officially order or require something, often by law.

   The law mandates that all children attend school until sixteen.

3. 3
   noun

   An official order or instruction given by someone in authority.

   The committee was given a mandate to investigate the spending.

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.

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