authority
English
Alternative forms
- authourity, authoritie, autority, auctoritie (obsolete)
Etymology
From Middle English auctorite, autorite (“authority, book or quotation that settles an argument”), from Old French auctorité, from Latin stem of auctōritās (“invention, advice, opinion, influence, command”), from auctor (“master, leader, author”). For the presence of the h, compare the etymology of author.
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /ɔːˈθɒɹəti/, /ɔːˈθɒɹɪti/
- (US) IPA(key): /əˈθɔɹəti/, /əˈθɑɹəti/
Audio (US) (file) - (obsolete) IPA(key): /ɒːˈtɒɹɪti/
- Hyphenation: au‧thor‧i‧ty
- Rhymes: -ɒɹɪti
Noun
authority (countable and uncountable, plural authorities)
- (uncountable) Power or right to make or enforce rules or give orders; or a position having such power or right.
- I have the authority to penalise the staff in my department, but not the authority to sack them.
- Vigilantes may have the power to nab criminals, but they lack the authority.
- She lost all respect and authority after turning up drunk at the meeting.
- Respect my authority!
- 1777, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal, II.i:
- SIR PETER. Very well! ma'am very well! so a husband is to have no influence, no authority?
- LADY TEAZLE. Authority! no, to be sure—if you wanted authority over me, you should have adopted me and not married me[:] I am sure you were old enough.
- 1883, Howard Pyle, chapter V, in The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood […], New York, N.Y.: […] Charles Scribner’s Sons […], OCLC 22773434:
- But in the meantime Robin Hood and his band lived quietly in Sherwood Forest, without showing their faces abroad, for Robin knew that it would not be wise for him to be seen in the neighborhood of Nottingham, those in authority being very wroth with him.
- (plural) Persons, regarded collectively, who occupy official positions of power; police or law enforcement.
- Authorities say the suspect fled on foot.
- 1927, F. E. Penny, chapter 4, in Pulling the Strings:
- The case was that of a murder. It had an element of mystery about it, however, which was puzzling the authorities. A turban and loincloth soaked in blood had been found; also a staff.
- 2013 August 10, “Legal highs: A new prescription”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:
- No sooner has a [synthetic] drug been blacklisted than chemists adjust their recipe and start churning out a subtly different one. These “legal highs” are sold for the few months it takes the authorities to identify and ban them, and then the cycle begins again.
- (countable) A reliable, definitive source of information on a subject.
- the world's foremost authority on orangutans
- My cheap dictionary is not the authority on word derivations.
- 1930 September 18, Albert Einstein, as quoted in Albert Einstein: Creator and Rebel (1988) by Banesh Hoffman
- To punish me for my contempt of authority, Fate has made me an authority myself.
- (uncountable) Status as a trustworthy source of information, reputation for mastery or expertise; or claim to such status or reputation.
- Some thinkers regard appealing to authority as a logical fallacy; others regard it as a legitimate form of argument.
- (uncountable) Official permission; authorisation to act in some capacity on behalf of a ruling entity.
- 1964 July, “XP64: New Standard Carriage Project”, in Modern Railways, page 2:
- Authority to construct eight carriages, to test the new design in public service, had already been given; but of course complete working drawings had first to be prepared.
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- (countable) A government-owned agency that runs a revenue-generating activity for public benefit.
- New York Port Authority
- Chicago Transit Authority
Derived terms
- aileron authority
- antiauthority
- appeal to authority
- authoritah
- authority control
- authority figure
- authority issues
- authorityless
- certificate authority
- color of authority
- elevator authority
- moral authority
- multiauthority
- port authority
- postal authority
- public authority
- rudder authority
- signature authority
- statutory authority
- tax authority
- unitary authority
- verbal authority
Related terms
- author
- authoritarian
- authoritative
- authorization
Translations
power to enforce rules or give orders
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police or law enforcement collectively
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reliable source of information on a subject
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reliability, trustworthiness, or expertise
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government agency that runs a revenue-generating activity
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permission or authorisation
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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See also
- have something on good authority
References
- authority at OneLook Dictionary Search
- authority in Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary, edited by The Keywords Project, Colin MacCabe, Holly Yanacek, 2018.
- authority in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911
- “authority”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.