Mandatory vs Desirable - What's the difference?

As adjectives the difference between mandatory and desirable

is that mandatory is obligatory; required or commanded by authority while desirable is suitable, worthy to be desired.

As nouns the difference between mandatory and desirable

is that mandatory is a person, organisation or state who receives a mandate; a mandatary while desirable is a thing that people want; something that is desirable.

mandatory

English

Adjective

(en adjective)

Obligatory; required or commanded by authority.

Attendance at a school is usually mandatory .

* 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'.

Of, being or relating to a mandate.

Mandatory Palestine

Synonyms

* compulsory * obligatory

Antonyms

* (obligatory) optional * (obligatory) elective

Derived terms

* mandatoriness

Noun

(mandatories)

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

External links

* * * Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary * The Oxford English Dictionary

Anagrams

desirable

English

Adjective

(en adjective)

Suitable]], worthy to be [[desire#Verb, desired.

With fresh material, taxonomic conclusions are leavened by recognition that the material examined reflects the site it occupied; a herbarium packet gives one only a small fraction of the data desirable for sound conclusions. Herbarium material does not, indeed, allow one to extrapolate safely: what you see is what you get

Antonyms

* undesirable

Noun

(en noun)

A thing that people want; something that is desirable.

There are plenty of desirables on display in the window.

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