# mandate

Pronunciation: US say "MAN-dayt" /ˈmændeɪt/; UK

## Noun

1. An official or authoritative command or order; also, a formal authorization or commission to act.
   - Simple: An official order or instruction from someone in power.
   - _The health department's mandate required restaurants to post their inspection scores._
   - _Acting under a mandate from the board, the director restructured three departments._
2. The authority to pursue a course of action, granted to a politician or government by the electorate through an election victory.
   - Simple: The power that voters give a politician to carry out plans.
   - _The landslide victory gave the party a strong mandate to overhaul the tax code._
   - _Critics argued the narrow win provided no real mandate for such sweeping reforms._
5. The period during which an elected government or official holds power; a term of office. *(Canada)*
   - Simple: The time when a government holds power, from one election to the next.
   - _The prime minister promised to balance the budget before the end of his mandate._
   - _During its previous mandate, the coalition passed major climate legislation._
6. An authorization issued by the League of Nations directing a member nation to administer a former colony or conquered territory, as with Germany's colonies after World War I.
   - Simple: An order after World War I that let one country govern land taken from a defeated country.
   - _The League of Nations granted Britain a mandate over Mesopotamia in 1920._
   - _Japan administered several Pacific islands under a mandate established after the First World War._
7. A territory administered by a member nation under a League of Nations mandate, such as the former German colonies after World War I.
   - Simple: A piece of land governed by one country for the League of Nations after World War I.
   - _Tanganyika, a British mandate, gained independence as part of modern Tanzania._
   - _Roads and railways were built across the mandate during the years of French administration._
9. Alternative form of man date. *(colloquial)* — Alternative form of man date: a date between two men.
   - Simple: Alternative form of man date. It is a casual, joking way to talk about a date between two men.
   - _He insisted the concert wasn't a mandate, just two friends with extra tickets._
   - _Their monthly mandate usually means barbecue and a ball game._

## Verb

3. To make something mandatory; to require it by law, rule, or official policy.
   - Simple: To make something a rule that people must follow.
   - _Several cities now mandate composting for restaurants and grocery stores._
   - _Congress mandated annual safety inspections for commercial trucks._
4. To formally require a person or body to act in a particular way, or to grant them the authority to do so; to command.
   - Simple: To officially order a person or group to do something.
   - _Federal regulations mandate airlines to compensate passengers for lengthy delays._
   - _The treaty mandated each signatory to reduce emissions within a decade._
8. To assign a territory to a nation for administration under a mandate, or to administer it on that basis.
   - Simple: To place a territory under a country's care by order of an international body.
   - _The Allied powers agreed to mandate the former Ottoman provinces to Britain and France._
   - _South West Africa was mandated to South Africa in 1920._
10. To say a sermon or speech aloud over and over as practice before delivering it. *(dialectal, Scotland)*
   - Simple: To practice a sermon or speech by saying it out loud.
   - _The seminarians mandate their sermons each evening in the chapel._
   - _Before the ordination service, he mandated the homily until the cadences came naturally._

## Origin

**Meanings 1–2, 5–7** — First attested in 1521, it was borrowed from Latin mandātum ("a charge, order, command, commission"), formed from mandō ("to commit to one's charge, command," literally "to put into one's hands"), from manus ("hand") plus -dere ("to put"). A Canadian English sense is likely a semantic loan from French mandat.
**Meanings 3–4, 8, 10** — First attested in 1623, it came partly directly from Latin mandātus and partly from the earlier noun by metanalysis.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/mandate (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).