Basic Details
Word: Govern
Part of Speech: Verb
Meaning: To rule a country, state or group and manage its affairs; also to control or decide how something happens, as rules govern a game.
Synonyms: rule, run, control, manage
Word origin: Comes through Old French from Latin gubernare, 'to steer a ship'.
How to Spell Govern
Syllables: gov - ern
Tricky part: The first vowel is o although it sounds like the u in cup, and the word ends in ern. Students write guvern or govurn by ear.
Watch out for: guvern, govurn, govarn
Memory tip: Government is govern with ment on the end. The n that many people swallow when they say government is the last letter of govern, so the two words check each other.
Usage Examples
Example 1: The Mughal emperors governed a large part of the subcontinent for about two hundred years.
Example 2: An elected assembly governs each state from its capital.
Example 3: A good captain does not let anger govern her decisions on the field.
Fun Fact
Govern and cybernetics, the science of control systems, both trace back to a Greek word meaning to steer, so a governor was once a kind of steersman.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Makeup
Only one of these words can take the suffix ment to make a noun. Choose it:
ment
a) govern
b) rule
c) lead
d) steer
Show answer
a) govern. Govern + ment gives government; the other three make their nouns as ruler, leader and steering.
Word Cookie
Find the misspelt word in the sentence:
The new council will guvern the town for five years, and its first task is to repair the roads that the heavy monsoon rains washed away last August.
a) guvern
b) repair
c) council
d) monsoon
Show answer
a) guvern. Govern is spelt with an o, even though it sounds like the u in sun.
Word Connection
Choose the synonym of the word govern as used in the sentence:
The rules that govern the use of the computer lab are pinned on the notice board.
a) break
b) control
c) ignore
d) forget
Show answer
b) control. Rules that govern something control how it is done.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. To govern a country is to ____.
a) write a song about it
b) rule and manage it
c) draw a map of it
d) travel across it
Show answer
b) rule and manage it
2. The Latin word that govern comes from first meant ____.
a) to build a house
b) to steer a ship
c) to bake bread
d) to teach a child
Show answer
b) to steer a ship
