mandatory

From Late Latin mandatorius (“of or belonging to a mandator”), from mandātor (“one who commands”); see mandate.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmæn.də.t(ə)ɹi/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈmæn.dəˌtɔɹ.i/
  • (æ-tensing) IPA^(key): /ˈmɛən.dəˌtɔɹ.i/

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mandatory (comparative more mandatory, superlative most mandatory)

1. obligatory; required or commanded by authority.

   Synonyms: compulsory, obligatory; see also Thesaurus:compulsory

   Antonyms: optional, elective; see also Thesaurus:optional

   Attendance at a school is usually mandatory for children.

   • 1999, Ian Stewart, Jack Cohen, Figments of Reality: The Evolution of the Curious Mind, page 276:

     This kind of immediate control structure we take to be characteristic of the tribe, and it leads to a rather rigid type of system in which 'every action not mandatory is forbidden'.

   • 2011, Dirk Bünger, Deficits in EU and US Mandatory Environmental Information Disclosure: Legal, Comparative Legal and Economic Facets of Pollutant Release Inventories, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 57:

     It also discusses the access to legal instruments for enforcement with regard to mandatory disclosure of environmental information.

   • 2021 December 29, Paul Stephen, “Rail's accident investigators”, in RAIL, number 947, pages 30–31:

     While in the most serious cases mounting an investigation is usually mandatory, there are other occasions where it is less clear-cut or when it is concluded that an investigation would not fulfil RAIB's objectives to improve safety or prevent future accidents.

2. Of, being or relating to a mandate.

   Mandatory Palestine

• → Portuguese: mandatório

mandatory (plural mandatories)

1. (disc golf) A sign or line that require the path of the disc to be above, below or to one side of it.

   Synonym: (colloquial) mando

2. (dated, rare) A person, organisation or state who receives a mandate; a mandatary.

• “mandatory”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “mandatory”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary
• The Oxford English Dictionary

• damnatory