Word.ws English Dictionary

ordenance

ordenance is the obsolete form of ordnance.

Meaning of ordnance

Noun

ordnance (countable and uncountable, plural ordnances)

  1. (collective) Military equipment, especially weapons and ammunition.
    • When the Turkes tooke Conſtantinople, they melted the Bells into Ordnance; I haue heard both Bells and Ordnance, but neuer been ſo much affected with thoſe, as with theſe Bells.1624, John Donne, chapter XVI, in Deuotions upon Emergent Occasions, and Seuerall Steps in My Sicknes: […], London: […] A[ugustine] M[atthews] for Thomas Iones, →OCLC, page 389
  2. Artillery.
    • Let all the Battlements their Ordinance fire, / The King shal drinke to Hamlets better breath,c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...

Forms of ordenance

pluralordenances

Questions about ordenance

What is ordenance the obsolete form of?
Ordenance is the obsolete form of ordnance.

Words near ordenance in the dictionary

  1. ordeal bean
  2. ordeal beans
  3. ordeal tree
  4. ordeal trees
  5. ordeals
  6. ordenance
  7. Ordensstaat
  8. order
  9. order about
  10. order arms
  11. order around

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ordenance (page history and authors); ordnance (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.

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