Ordinance or ordnance?

ordinance is a noun meaning “A local law, passed by e.g. a city”; ordnance is a noun meaning “Military equipment, especially weapons and ammunition”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) ordinance is about 1.7 times as common as ordnance.

ordinanceorordnance

What is the difference between ordinance and ordnance?

	ordinance	ordnance
Part of speech	noun	noun
Meaning	USA local law, passed by e.g. a city Prior to the Third English Civil War, a decree of Parliament	Military equipment, especially weapons and ammunition Artillery
Example	none recorded	none recorded
Forms	ordinances	ordnances
Pronunciation	/ˈɔːdɪnəns/ /ˈɔːdnəns/ /ˈoɹdɪnəns/	/ˈɔːdnəns/ /ˈɔːdɪnəns/ /ˈoɹdnəns/
In writing	4.0 times per million words	2.3 times per million words

Sources: ordinance and ordnance in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Every current meaning of ordinance and ordnance

ordinance

1
noun USA local law, passed by e.g. a city
2
noun Prior to the Third English Civil War, a decree of Parliament
3
noun CommonwealthUKDetailed legislation that translates the broad principles of the university's charter and statutes into practical effect
4
noun A law enacted by the Hong Kong Legislative Council
5
noun IndiaA temporary legislation promulgated by the president on the recommendation of the cabinet
6
noun A religious practice or ritual prescribed by a church
7
noun proscribedAlternative form of ordnance (“military equipment, especially artillery”)

ordnance

1
noun Military equipment, especially weapons and ammunition
2
noun Artillery

Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.

Which is more common, ordinance or ordnance?

ordinance appears 4.0 times per million words; ordnance 2.3 times per million words.

0.0010.010.11101001,00010,000

rarerper million words of written Englishmore common

ordinance 4.0 times per million wordsordnance 2.3 times per million words

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How many people search ordinance vs ordnance?

“ordinance vs ordnance” is searched about 1,600 times a month on Google and 120 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“ordnance vs ordinance”, “ordinance or ordnance”).

Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.