govern

Syllables: gov·ernUK/ˈɡʌv.ən//ˈɡʌv.ɚn/

govern verb: to make and administer the public policy and affairs of; to exercise sovereign authority in.

Verb

govern (third-person singular simple present governs, present participle governing, simple past and past participle governed)

(transitive) To make and administer the public policy and affairs of; to exercise sovereign authority in.
- The old king governed the land wisely.
(intransitive) To exercise political authority; to run a government.
- Americans are not libertarians in the Cato Institute sense of the word, but they are folk libertarians in this sense of impulsive behaviour, which is a feature of American life that anyone who wants to govern the United States, Democratic or Republican, has to be aware of.2025 April 28, Ross Douthat, Nick Adams, “Condition of America”, in New Left Review, number 152, →ISSN, archived from the original on 22 Aug 2025
(transitive) To control the actions or behavior of; to keep under control; to restrain.
- Govern yourselves like civilized people.
- a student who could not govern his impulses
(transitive) To exercise a deciding or determining influence on.
- Chance governs the outcome of many card games.
(intransitive) To have or exercise a determining influence.
(obsolete, transitive) To handle, to manage, to oversee (a matter, an affair, a household, etc.).
(transitive) To control the speed, flow etc. of; to regulate.
- a valve that governs fuel intake
- The weight and c.g. of the aircraft were within limits at takeoff and were calculated to have remained so until the tail began to disintegrate in flight. Both engines were developing a high level of power at impact, and the APU was rotating at or near governed speed. The landing gear, flaps, and...1968 April 18, National Transportation Safety Board, “2.1 Analysis”, in Aircraft Accident Report: Mohawk Airlines, Inc., BAC 1-11, N1116J, Near Blossburg, Pennsylvania, June 23, 1967, archived from...
(obsolete, transitive) To direct the course of, to guide in some direction, to steer.
(obsolete, transitive) To look after, to take care of, to tend to (someone or some plant).
- from my vncles country of Medea,
  Where all my youth I haue bene gouerned, […]c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC...
(obsolete, transitive) To manage, to control, to work (a tool or mechanical device).
(transitive) To require that a certain preposition, grammatical case, etc. be used with a word.
- In Latin (Russian, German, etc.), not only verbs, but also prepositions, may govern the noun, pronoun or noun-phrase dependent upon them in a particular case: e.g. ad urbem, ‘to the city’ (ad ‘takes the accusative’: urbem) v. ab urbe, ‘from the city’ (ab ‘takes the ablative’: urbe).1968, John Lyons, Introduction to Theoretical Linguistics, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 241
Synonyms:

collocate

Noun

govern (plural governs)

The act of governing

govern meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

govern in Hindi

to exercise sovereign authority in: हुकूमत करना hukūmat karnā, शासन करना śāsan karnā

govern in Tamil

ஆட்சி செய், ஆளு, ஆள், உடன்படுத்து, கட்டுப்படுத்து, முறைப்படுத்து

govern in Urdu

to exercise sovereign authority in: حکومت کرنا hukūmat karnā

More languagesFewer languages

govern in Bengali: শাসন করা śaśon kora
govern in Telugu: పరిపాలించడానికి, పాలించడానికి
govern in Malayalam: ഭരിക്കുക bharikkuka
govern in Kannada: ಆಳು, ಆಳ್ವಿಕೆ ನಡೆಸು, ಆಡಳಿತ ನಡೆಸು, ರಾಜ್ಯಭಾರ ಮಾಡು
govern in Punjabi: ਸ਼ਾਸਨ ਕਰਨ ਲਈ, ਸ਼ਾਸਨ ਕਰਨਾ
govern in Gujarati: શાસન કરવા
govern in Odia: ଶାସନ କରିବା
govern in Sanskrit: राष्टि rāṣṭi
govern in Nepali: शासन गर्ने, शासन गर्न
govern in Pashto: حکومت کول hokumatkawᶕl, حکم چلول hokémčalawǝ́l
govern in Arabic: حَكَمَ ḥakama, تَحَكَّمَ taḥakkama, مَلَكَ malaka
govern in Malay: memerintah
govern in Indonesian: memerintah
govern in Persian: حکومت کردن hokumat kardan
govern in Thai: ปกครอง bpòk-krɔɔng
govern in Vietnamese: cai trị, quản trị, chủ quản, chỉ đạo
govern in Myanmar: အုပ်စိုး upcui:, ကြီးကဲ kri:kai:

Examples of govern in a sentence

Find the strength, courage, and discipline to govern yourself or be governed by someone else.2016, Justin Deschamps, Find the strength, courage, and discipline to govern yourself or be governed by someone else.:
This female hyena also gets erections and is larger, more aggressive than the male hyenas and lives in matrilineal clans of up to 80 individuals governed by an alpha female matriarch.2022 June 12, Katie Hunt, “How zoology got female animals all wrong”, in CNN, archived from the original on 17 Aug 2022:
Both engines were developing a high level of power at impact, and the APU was rotating at or near governed speed.1968 April 18, National Transportation Safety Board, “2.1 Analysis”, in Aircraft Accident Report: Mohawk Airlines, Inc., BAC 1-11, N1116J...

All 40 example sentences with govern

Synonyms of govern

collocate

Forms of govern

Verb
third-person singular present	governs
present participle	governing
past participle	governed
past	governed
Noun
plural	governs

Past tense of govern: governed

Origin of govern

From Middle English governen, governe, from Anglo-Norman and Old French governer, guverner, from Latin gubernō, from Ancient Greek κυβερνάω (kubernáō, “to steer, drive, govern”). Displaced native Old English wealdan, whence modern dialectical English wald (“to govern”).

Words formed from govern

Words that rhyme with govern

Questions about govern

What does govern mean?: Govern means to make and administer the public policy and affairs of; to exercise sovereign authority in.
What is govern in Hindi?: Govern in Hindi is हुकूमत करना (hukūmat karnā), शासन करना (śāsan karnā). See Govern meaning in Hindi.
How do you use govern in a sentence?: Find the strength, courage, and discipline to govern yourself or be governed by someone else.
What part of speech is govern?: Govern can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce govern?: Govern is pronounced /ˈɡʌv.ən/ (UK).
What is the past tense of govern?: The past tense of govern is governed.

Words near govern in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: govern (page history and authors); govern (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); govern (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); govern (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ഭരിക്കുക (Malayalam) (page history and authors); govern (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); govern (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); govern (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); govern (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); govern (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-govern.ogg.

Cite this entry: “govern.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/govern. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.