ˌkau̇n-tər-ˈmand
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In the military, one's mandate is to follow the commands (and sometimes the countermands) of the officers. Doing their bidding is not particularly commendable—it's simply mandatory. The Latin verb mandare, meaning "to entrust" or "to order," is the authority behind countermand. It's also behind the words mandate, command, demand, commend (which can mean "to entrust" as well as "to praise"), and mandatory. Countermand came to English via Anglo French, where the prefix cuntre- ("against") was combined with the verb mander ("to command"). It has been a part of English since the 1400s.
Examples of countermand in a Sentence
Chris Stirewalt, The Hill, 30 May 2025
The Manhattan court countermanded the intransigence of the court stenographers and directed the daily publication of the Trump transcripts on a court website.
—Nick Akerman, New York Daily News, 9 May 2025
Their instructions in effect countermanded the order of Mr. Musk across much of the government, challenging the broad authority President Trump has given the world’s richest man to make drastic changes to the federal bureaucracy.
—Chris Cameron, New York Times, 23 Feb. 2025
The ship’s first mate ordered the Arlington onto a course to hug the Canadian North Shore, which would have provided some cover from wind and waves, but Burke countermanded and ordered his ship back onto a course across the open lake, the discoverers said.
—Apress, Hartford Courant, 13 June 2024
See All Example Sentences for countermand
Cite this Entry
“Countermand.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/countermand. Accessed 12 Jun. 2025.
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