governance

noun

gov·​er·​nance ˈgə-vər-nən(t)s 

plural governances

: the act or process of governing or overseeing the control and direction of something (such as a country or an organization) : government

a centralized system of governance

the challenges of national governance

… the governance of amateur sport in America …

—P. S. Wood

… three years before he died, [Lionel] Trilling pressed the point that the way a nation thinks determines in the end the quality of its governance.

—Benjamin DeMott

Enron, and the corporate disasters that followed, forced many companies to get serious about governance.

—Louis Lavelle

Theirs was the perennial problem of quick-witted subjects under the governance of dull-witted administrators.

—Declan Kiberd

Michael Dukakis, at the 1988 Democratic convention, said governance was about competence, not ideology. He got it half right: Competence is important to governance, but ideology is critical …

—U.S. News & World Report

Synonyms of governance

• government
• administration
• rule
• regime

Examples of governance in a Sentence

They have very different approaches to the governance of the city.

after World War II, the four Allied nations shared the governance of the territory of postwar Germany under the Allied Control Council

Recent Examples on the Web

Absent an international effort to coordinate governance over AI, control over all these inputs and so much more will be at grave risk. — Elizabeth Shackelford, Chicago Tribune, 2 Oct. 2026

Frey brings more than 20 years of experience across player development, talent identification, coach education, league strategy and governance. — Sportico Staff, Sportico.com, 2 Oct. 2026

Corporate governance and the Korea discount Like other South Korean chaebols, SK Group has faced scrutiny over a corporate structure that allows a founding family to maintain control without owning a majority of the group’s shares. — Encyclopedia Britannica, 2 Oct. 2026

Security and governance create the trust to operate at enterprise scale. — Sesh Tirumala, Forbes.com, 2 Oct. 2026

Word History

Etymology

see govern

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing governance

• self-governance

Kids Definition

governance

noun

gov·​er·​nance ˈgəv-ər-nən(t)s 

: the exercise of control : government