govern

GUV-urn/ˈɡʌv.ɚn/UKGUV-uhn/ˈɡʌv.ən/

12 meanings of govern

1
verbtransitive
To make and administer the public policy and affairs of a country, state, or other political unit; to exercise sovereign authority over it.
The party that wins the election will govern the nation for the next four years.
Rome governed its provinces through appointed officials.
Similarrule, run, administer, lead, control
Note
Ruling began as steering. Through Old French governer and Latin gubernō, the verb goes back to Greek kubernáō, “I steer, drive, govern,” so a helmsman stands behind every meaning of the word. Here the verb takes a direct object, a land, a nation or its provinces. Without an object it becomes simply holding power.
2
verbintransitive
To exercise political authority; to be in power and run a government.
The coalition has governed since the last election.
Those who govern must answer to those they serve.
Similarrule, lead, reign
Note
Used without an object, the verb asks who is in charge rather than what is being ruled. A coalition governs, a party governs alone, and those who govern answer to voters. The territory may be understood, but it is not named. Once a country is named as the object, the verb shifts back to ruling a land or nation.
3
verbtransitive
To control or restrain the actions or behavior of someone or something; to keep under control.
He learned to govern his impulses after years of practice.
The monks governed their appetites through strict daily discipline.
Similarcontrol, restrain, curb, check, master
Note
Its natural home is the reflexive: govern yourself, govern yourselves like civilized people. Justin Deschamps (2016) sets the two sides against each other in one line, “govern yourself or be governed by someone else,” playing self-restraint against outside rule. With other objects, the thing kept in check is usually something inside a person, such as impulses or appetites.
4
verbtransitive
To have a deciding or determining influence on something; to shape its nature or outcome.
Supply and demand govern prices in an open market.
Strict treaties governed trade between the two empires.
Similardetermine, dictate, shape, control, regulate
5
verbintransitive
To have or exercise a determining influence; to act as the controlling factor.
Where the contract is silent, state law governs.
In everyday speech, habit tends to govern.
Similarprevail, apply, rule
6
verbtransitive
To control the speed, flow, or other rate of something; to regulate it.
A thermostat governs the temperature inside the greenhouse.
Heavy gates govern the flow of water through the dam.
Similarregulate, control
Note
The engineer's verb survives in phrases like a valve that governs fuel intake. The device that does the work is a governor, which throttles an engine's input to hold its speed near a set value. Unlike the obsolete hands-on sense, this govern needs no operator: its object is a rate or quantity, such as speed, flow or intake, and the mechanism regulates it by itself.
7
verbtransitive
To require that a certain preposition, grammatical case, or other form be used with another word; sometimes used loosely of words that habitually occur together.
In German, the preposition 'mit' governs the dative case.
Some Russian prepositions govern one case for motion and another for location.
Similartake
Note
A grammarian's term for a requirement one word places on another. A preposition or verb governs a case, as German mit governs the dative, or it governs a particular preposition after it. Syntactic theory built this relation into government and binding theory. In looser use it means little more than collocate, so check whether a writer means a strict rule or a habit.

8
nounobsolete
The act of ruling, controlling or directing someone or something.
9
verbobsoletetransitive
To handle, manage, or oversee a matter, an affair, a household, or a similar charge.
The steward governed the estate's accounts and answered to no one but the earl.
A merchant must govern his correspondence carefully if his trade is to prosper.
Note
This is the practical, everyday use the verb carried before it narrowed toward political rule: having charge of an estate, a business or a household. It goes back through French and Latin to a Greek verb for steering, and the image of keeping something on course suits it well. It is now obsolete. In modern prose, manage or run does this job, and to govern a household reads as deliberately old-fashioned.
10
verbobsoletetransitive
To direct the course of something; to guide it in a particular direction or steer it.
Note
The meaning closest to the Greek steersman's verb behind the political sense, yet in English it has died out. Use steer, guide or direct for ships and carts today. Governing a vessel through a channel now reads as deliberately old-fashioned, and some readers will take it as a metaphor for command rather than a literal hand on the helm.
11
verbobsoletetransitive
To manage, control, or work a tool or other mechanical device with the hands.
An apprentice spent years learning to govern the lathe.
The printer governed his press alone through the long night.
Note
The craftsman's use belongs to the workshop: a lathe or a press was governed where today we would say worked or operated. It is obsolete, one more relic of the verb's older breadth. Its living descendant is the regulating sense, with one shift worth noticing: here a person handles the machine, while in modern use the machine, or a part of it, does the governing.
12
verbobsoletetransitive
To look after, take care of, or tend to a person or a plant.
Note
Here govern means raising a person or tending something that grows. Marlowe's Tamburlaine has a speaker recall the uncle's country "where all my youth I have been governed." In such lines, read it as "brought up" or "cared for," not "ruled." The political reading is the easy mistake. The sense is obsolete, another trace of the verb's older practical breadth.

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of govern apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

This word came into Middle English as governen from Anglo-Norman and Old French governer, which came from Latin gubernō, ultimately from Ancient Greek κυβερνάω (kubernáō, "I steer, drive, govern").