Definition of "mandatory" []

• Required or commanded by authority; obligatory: Attendance at the meeting is mandatory. (adjective)
• Of, having the nature of, or containing a mandate. (adjective)
• Holding a League of Nations mandate over a territory. (adjective)
• A mandatary. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "That said, what is it going to take to put teeth in the term mandatory evacuation?"
• "But by using the term mandatory, we hope that that puts enough seriousness behind the order for people to leave."
• "On the last Tuesday of each month, she and her three horns and five rhythm put on an unstoppable juggernaut of a set at the Iridium, with one hard-hitting swinger after another, pausing only for what she describes as a mandatory "two-ballad minimum.""