mandates

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of mandate.

   Federal mandates required schools to update their accessibility plans.

   The two agencies issued conflicting mandates about reporting deadlines.

   Note

   One spelling, several kinds of plural. Most often it counts binding orders or grants of authority, as in federal mandates or the mandates an electorate hands its politicians. Historically it also named the territories the League of Nations assigned to member nations to govern. In Canadian usage a government's mandates are its terms in power. The same spelling serves as the verb's present form: an agency issues mandates, but it also mandates testing.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of mandate.

   The policy mandates a background check before any hire.

   State regulation mandates that restaurants post their inspection scores.

   Note

   A present-tense form that takes three common shapes. The law mandates a check names the thing required. It mandates that restaurants post scores adds a that-clause. It mandates an agency to act pairs a person with a to-infinitive and comes closer to granting authority. Rarer uses sit at the edges: a power mandates a territory it administers under a mandate, and, especially in Scotland, a preacher mandates a sermon by rehearsing it aloud.

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