Clubs, schools, towns and kingdoms all need ways to make rules and to unmake them. This topic’s words describe each step: a rule is enacted or decreed, written as a statute, approved (ratified) or blocked (vetoed), and later perhaps repealed, rescinded, abolished or nullified. These words appear constantly in history passages.
Key idea
Making rules: enact (make into law), statute (a written law), mandate (an official order; also, authority from voters), decree (a ruler’s order), ratify (formally approve). Blocking and unmaking: veto (a power to reject), abolish (end completely), repeal (cancel a law), rescind (take back an order or offer), nullify (make void).
The ten words
Common mistake
statute (a law) is not statue (a sculpture) or stature (height or standing). ratify approves; repeal and rescind undo.
| step | words |
|---|---|
| an order from the top | decree, mandate |
| making a law | enact; the law is a statute |
| approving an agreement | ratify |
| blocking it | veto |
| undoing it | repeal (a law), rescind (an order or offer), nullify (make void), abolish (end entirely) |
Three look-alikes: a statute is a law, a statue is a sculpture, and stature is height or standing. And keep the direction straight: ratify approves; repeal and rescind undo.