Word.ws English Dictionary

Mandates of Heaven

Mandates of Heaven is the plural of Mandate of Heaven.

Meaning of Mandate of Heaven

Noun

Mandate of Heaven (plural Mandates of Heaven)

  1. Any such mandate or blessing.
  2. The Chinese philosophical concept of the circumstances under which a ruler is allowed to rule. Good rulers would be allowed to rule with the Mandate of Heaven, and despotic, unjust rulers would have the Mandate revoked by disasters or revolution.
  3. (figuratively, humorous, often) The preeminence of an incumbent or institution other than that of the rulers of China.

See all 4 meanings of Mandate of Heaven

Questions about Mandates of Heaven

What is Mandates of Heaven the plural of?
Mandates of Heaven is the plural of Mandate of Heaven.

Words near Mandates of Heaven in the dictionary

  1. mandated reporter
  2. mandated reporters
  3. mandatee
  4. mandatees
  5. mandates
  6. Mandates of Heaven
  7. mandating
  8. mandative
  9. mandator
  10. mandatories
  11. mandatorily

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Mandates of Heaven (page history and authors); Mandate of Heaven (page history and authors). 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:

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