How to Use ordain in a Sentence

ordain

verb
  • The process was ordained by law.
  • She is an ordained minister.
  • To be fair, maybe the ordained don’t have too many chances to hone their dating skills.
    — Jennifer Zhan, Vulture, 18 May 2024
  • On the left was Fleck at age 26, when he was ordained.
    — Jeff Vorva, Chicago Tribune, 8 June 2026
  • Prevost was ordained the next June.
    — Paul Elie, New Yorker, 5 Jan. 2026
  • That year, he was ordained a minister.
    — Georg Szalai, HollywoodReporter, 17 Feb. 2026
  • And one of the tenets of that faith is that God ordains everything.
    — Scott Pelley, CBS News, 26 Apr. 2026
  • Any man could do it, ordained or not, as long as the baptism was full immersion.
    — Jamie Quatro, The New Yorker, 31 July 2023
  • Thirty-two deacons from around the world were being ordained that day.
    — Kristine Tran, San Diego Union-Tribune, 20 Aug. 2025
  • Healy and his brothers were ordained in Europe.
    — Annie Selak, The Conversation, 27 Jan. 2026
  • Ebenezer is where King was baptized as a child and ordained at 19.
    — Jeff Martin, Los Angeles Times, 20 Jan. 2025
  • In his nearly 30 years on death row, he has been ordained as a pastor and started a church.
    — Laura L. Davis, Nashville Tennessean, 24 Mar. 2025
  • Deacons are ordained ministers of the church and can fulfill some, but not all, of the roles a priest may fill.
    — Fox News, 27 Oct. 2019
  • His old mentor called him from Atlanta — the same man who had helped him get ordained the year before.
    — Brenna Ehrlich, Rolling Stone, 29 Mar. 2025
  • Then, as if ordained, Springer struck first for the Astros with a solo homer in the third.
    — Mark Collette, Houston Chronicle, 31 Oct. 2017
  • But Lambert Nieme and the six other men who will be ordained have been passed all of those tests.
    — Thomas Farragher, BostonGlobe.com, 1 May 2018
  • The members of the quorum ordained and set him apart as president of the Church.
    — Glenna Christensen, idahostatesman, 19 Jan. 2018
  • Women cannot be ordained as deacons, priests or bishops in the Catholic Church.
    — Frances Vinall, Washington Post, 27 Apr. 2023
  • Some of them, confusingly, are even ordained as clergy.
    — Alexandra Petri, The Atlantic, 28 Jan. 2026
  • There is nothing divinely ordained here.
    — Carter Dougherty, Mercury News, 7 Feb. 2026
  • The idea took hold nonetheless, and in June, 2000, he was ordained.
    — Lawrence Wright, The New Yorker, 10 Feb. 2025
  • Holy Land The first female pastor was ordained in the Holy Land.
    — Erika Page, The Christian Science Monitor, 16 Feb. 2023
  • The United Church of Christ was the first to ordain a woman and an openly gay man.
    — Miami Herald, 4 June 2026
  • Hart was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Kansas City-St.
    — Judy L. Thomas, kansascity, 3 July 2018
  • Haight was ordained in 1976 and spent the rest of his career in the Albany diocese.
    — Lee O. Sanderlin, Baltimore Sun, 27 June 2023
  • Fisher grew up at Beth Am and even trained to be a rabbi there before becoming ordained.
    — Lauren Costantino march 14, Miami Herald, 14 Mar. 2026
  • This spring, nine men were ordained to the priesthood in Milwaukee, the most since 1992.
    — Sophie Carson, Journal Sentinel, 9 June 2024
  • Tips for a Brazil Road Trip Divinely ordained or not, our journey left its mark.
    — María Cristina Lalonde, Travel + Leisure, 29 Dec. 2025
  • Planners razed coconut plantations, sketched marina slips and golf courses, and ordained where tourists would sleep, eat, and jet ski.
    — Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 28 Apr. 2026
  • MacArthur was ordained in 1953 in the Diocese of Sioux Falls.
    — Laura Schulte, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | Robert Herguth, Chicago Sun-Times, Journal Sentinel, 12 Dec. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'ordain.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: