ordinance
    n 1: an authoritative rule [syn: regulation, ordinance]
    2: a statute enacted by a city government
    3: the act of ordaining; the act of conferring (or receiving)
       holy orders; "the rabbi's family was present for his
       ordination" [syn: ordination, ordinance]

Ordinance \Or"di*nance\, n. [OE. ordenance, OF. ordenance, F.
   ordonnance. See Ordain, and cf. Ordnance, Ordonnance.]
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   1. Orderly arrangement; preparation; provision. [Obs.]
      --Spenser.
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            They had made their ordinance
            Of victual, and of other purveyance.  --Chaucer.
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   2. A rule established by authority; a permanent rule of
      action; a statute, law, regulation, rescript, or accepted
      usage; an edict or decree; esp., a local law enacted by a
      municipal government; as, a municipal ordinance.
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            Thou wilt die by God's just ordinance. --Shak.
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            By custom and the ordinance of times. --Shak.
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            Walking in all the commandments and ordinances of
            the Lord blameless.                   --Luke i. 6.
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   Note: Acts of Parliament are sometimes called ordinances;
         also, certain colonial laws and certain acts of
         Congress under Confederation; as, the ordinance of 1787
         for the government of the territory of the United
         States northwest of the Ohio River; the colonial
         ordinance of 1641, or 1647. This word is often used in
         Scripture in the sense of a law or statute of sovereign
         power. --Ex. xv. 25. --Num. x. 8. --Ezra iii. 10. Its
         most frequent application now in the United States is
         to laws and regulations of municipal corporations.
         --Wharton (Law Dict.).
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   3. (Eccl.) An established rite or ceremony.
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   4. Rank; order; station. [Obs.] --Shak.
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   5. [See Ordnance.] Ordnance; cannon. [Obs.] --Shak.
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ORDINANCE, legislation. A law, a statute, a decree.
     2. This word is more usually applied to the laws of a corporation, than 
to the acts of the legislature; as the ordinances of the city of 
Philadelphia. The following account of the difference between a statute and 
an ordinance is extracted from Bac. Ab. Statute, A. "Where the proceeding 
consisted only of a petition from parliament, and an answer from the king, 
these were entered on the parliament roll; and if the matter was of a public 
nature, the whole was then styled an ordinance; if, however, the petition 
and answer were not only of a public, but a novel nature, they were then 
formed into an act by the king, with the aid of his council and judges, and 
entered on the statute roll." See Harg. & But. Co. Litt. l59 b, notis; 3 
Reeves, Hist. Eng. Law, 146. 
     3. According to Lord Coke, the difference between a statute and an 
ordinance is, that the latter has not had the assent of the king, lords, and 
commons, but is made merely by two of those powers. 4 Inst. 25. See Barr. on 
Stat. 41, note (x).