Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use govern in a sentence

40 example sentences · verb, noun

Govern means to make and administer the public policy and affairs of; to exercise sovereign authority in. Example: “The old king governed the land wisely.”

Examples of govern by meaning

verbTo make and administer the public policy and affairs of; to exercise sovereign authority in.

  • The old king governed the land wisely.

verbTo 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
  • 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.

verbTo exercise a deciding or determining influence on.

  • Chance governs the outcome of many card games.

verbTo control the speed, flow etc. of; to regulate.

  • a valve that governs fuel intake
  • 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...

More sentences with govern

  • The criteria governing the choice of candidate were heavily weighted in his favor.From the entry weight
  • As part of his successful re-election strategy, Clinton began governing from the middle.From the entry middle
  • A single locus governing the petal colour character was detected on the linkage group A2.From the entry character
  • During the centuries, the people of Ireland struggled constantly to assert their right to govern themselves.From the entry struggle
  • Notwithstanding personal preferences, the school district's rules on the topic govern our decision.From the entry notwithstanding
  • His spacious quarters indicate his transition from backbench upstart to established member of the governing team.From the entry backbench
  • We live in an orderly universe, where rules govern both the movements of planets and the binding of molecules.From the entry orderly
  • Good decision-making is not governed by mere sentiment.From the entry sentiment
  • Democracy’s legitimacy stems from the consent of the governed.From the entry legitimacy
  • The Vatican City State, a sovereign city-state governed by Holy See, has a large number of embassies across the world.From the entry city state
  • In a quirk of German politics, the governing coalitions are often given names.2025 February 22, Sebastian Shukla, Nadine Schmidt and Claudia Otto, “Germany is holding a national election. Here’s what’s at stake”, in…. From the entry coalition
  • In general, LLCs are governed by the laws of their home states.2023 November 15, Kelsie Anderson, Jason Cother, Kristen Coates, “5 best states to form an LLC in 2024”, in CNN. From the entry LLC
  • If a party doesn’t care about governing, why would it care that the government isn’t functioning?2023 October 31, Nicole Hemmer, “Opinion: Hard-right Republicans say they hate government, but they sure love the power”, in CNN. From the entry antigovernment
  • Early states were usually governed by militocracies, whose main source of social power was simply force.2023, Peter Turchin, End Times: Elites, Counter-Elites, and the Path of Political Disintegration, Penguin, →ISBN. From the entry militocracy
  • "Our nation must be governed not from chaos but from opportunity.2019 February 10, Elena Schneider, "Klobuchar jumps into presidential race". From the entry grandstanding
  • In these cells, much is still unknown about the cytoskeletal network, which governs the mechanoresponse.2016 January 16, “Cytoskeletal Expression and Remodeling in Pluripotent Stem Cells”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI. From the entry mechanoresponse
  • The governing party receives twice as less votes here than it does on average across Russia.2015 July 27, Yaroslav Vlasov, “Electioneering games in Siberia”, in Open Democracy. From the entry twice as less
  • On page two, we listed her primary governing values and operating principles.2013 September 30, Ratanjit, How Oneness Changes Everything: Empowering Business Through 9 Universal Laws, BalboaPress, →ISBN, page 213. From the entry mission
  • Thus people are unabled to expect a certain person or organization to govern their state completely fair-handedly.2013, Xing Yu, Language and State: An Inquiry into the Progress of Civilization, →ISBN, page 183. From the entry fair-handedly
  • The body, however, failed to alter the bare-knuckle politics governing the nominating convention.2013, Jeffrey Bloodworth, Losing the Center: The Decline of American Liberalism, 1968--1992, →ISBN. From the entry bare-knuckle
  • So, depending on how he chooses to govern over the next four years, Mr.2012 November 7, Matt Bai, “Winning a Second Term, Obama Will Confront Familiar Headwinds”, in New York Times. From the entry transition
  • Munding governs a provinceful of Communists, he's the last of the free, though he doesn't know it.2011, Jose Dalisay, In Flight: Two Novels of the Philippines, IPG, →ISBN, page 91. From the entry provinceful
  • Quit pondering the inconsequence of being in a universe governed by chaos and just play some football.2008, The Onion, 0:50 from the start, in Pre-Game Coin Toss Makes Jaguars Realize Randomness Of Life, spoken by Reggie Greengrass (Beau…. From the entry inconsequence
  • Take bishops: they sat as legislators and so were part of the governing apparatus.2006 April 3, David Walker, “Beyond her imagination”, in The Guardian. From the entry apparatus
  • A variety of federal environmental laws govern the use of phytotechnology for remediation.2006, Harry LeVine, Genetic Engineering: A Reference Handbook, page 33. From the entry phytotechnology
  • When a government substitutes propaganda for governing, the Potemkin village is all.2005 December 11, Frank Rich, “It Takes a Potemkin Village”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 10 Feb 2021. From the entry Potemkin village
  • All other tasks, except those designated as crucial by the governing council, are suspended until further notice.2002, Laura J. Mixon, Burning the Ice. From the entry facemail
  • "And it's one area most executives would just assume not govern, a new survey shows."2002 February 17, Teresa M. McAleavy, “Unwritten Rules Govern Office Wooing”, in Record. From the entry just assume
  • Although promagistrates could not exercise their power in Rome itself, many were appointed to govern overseas territories.1998, Carroll Moulton, editor, Ancient Greece and Rome: An Encyclopedia for Students, →ISBN, page 104. From the entry promagistrate
  • This system of governing was claimed to produce an engine that was smoothrunning under all load conditions.1997, Patrick Knight, Stationary Engine Review, page 32. From the entry smoothrunning
  • What does the helmsman with his governail have to teach those who govern?1995, Michel Serres, The Natural Contract, University of Michigan Press, page 43. From the entry governail
  • The two principles that governed my life at Mqhekezweni were chieftaincy and the Church.1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela, London: Abacus, published 2010, page 22. From the entry chieftaincy
  • Whoever governs Singapore must have that iron in him, or give it up.1980 December 19, PAP election rally at Fullerton Square, spoken by Lee Kuan Yew. From the entry iron

Meaning of govern

  1. verb To make and administer the public policy and affairs of; to exercise sovereign authority in.
  2. verb To exercise political authority; to run a government.
  3. verb To control the actions or behavior of; to keep under control; to restrain.

Full definition of govern

Questions about govern in a sentence

How do you use govern in a sentence?
Govern is used as a verb and noun. For example: “The old king governed the land wisely.”
What is a short sentence with govern?
“Govern yourselves like civilized people.”
What does govern mean?
Govern means to make and administer the public policy and affairs of; to exercise sovereign authority in.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: govern (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use govern in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/govern. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.