Other forms: approvals
Approval is an official yes — the moment somebody with the power to decide agrees that a thing may go ahead. Planning approval for an extension, the board's approval of next year's budget, a new drug waiting for approval before any chemist can sell it.
There is a warmer, quieter kind as well: a nod of approval, a look of approval from a parent, a teenager who wants approval more than money. Watch the prepositions — approval OF a plan when you mean the act of approving it, approval FOR a project when you mean the permission itself. It is uncountable, so say we need approval, never an approval. The verb is approve, and approve of is a different animal: I approve the design means I authorise it, I approve of the design means I like it.
1nounapprovalOfficial agreement that something may happen or be done.~78%
“The plans went ahead once the council gave its approval.”
synonyms: consent, authorisation
2noungoodA good opinion of someone or something.~22%
“He glanced at his father, looking for approval.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 32 sentences found in the wild and placed 32 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
approval is a form of permission.
Middle English
aproven
English
approve
English, today
approval
Built from
From approve + -al. approve comes from Middle English aproven. From Middle English aproven, appreoven, appreven, apreven, borrowed from Old French aprover, approver, approuvir, appreuver (“to approve”), from Latin approbō, from ad + probō (“to esteem as good, approve, prove”). a doublet of approbate. by surface analysis, ad- + prove.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA