mandate. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

mandate

SYLLABICATION:	man·date
PRONUNCIATION:	mndt
NOUN:	1. An authoritative command or instruction. 2. A command or an authorization given by a political electorate to its representative. 3a. A commission from the League of Nations authorizing a member nation to administer a territory. b. A region under such administration. 4. Law a. An order issued by a superior court or an official to a lower court. b. A contract by which one party agrees to perform services for another without payment.
TRANSITIVE VERB:	Inflected forms: man·dat·ed, man·dat·ing, man·dates 1. To assign (a colony or territory) to a specified nation under a mandate. 2. To make mandatory, as by law; decree or require: mandated desegregation of public schools.
ETYMOLOGY:	Latin mandtum, from neuter past participle of mandre, to order. See man-² in Appendix I.
OTHER FORMS:	mandator —NOUN


The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.