authority

UK/ɔːˈθɒɹəti/US/əˈθɔɹədi/

nounB15 meanings Very common — you will meet it every day · #1,428 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: authorities

Authority is the right to tell people what to do and be obeyed. A teacher who quiets a room by walking into it, a police officer's raised hand, the one signature that has to be on the form.

In the plural it means the people in charge: report it to the authorities, and everyone hears police, council, government. It is also a countable body — the local authority, the transport authority — a public organisation that runs something. An authority ON something is an expert whose word ends the argument: she is an authority on wasps. With authority describes the manner, so he spoke with authority means nobody doubted him. In the power sense it stays uncountable: you have authority over people, not an authority.

Definitions of authority

1nounauthorityThe power to give orders and expect them to be obeyed.B1~12%
“A sergeant has authority over everyone in the room.”
synonyms: power, command, control
2nounideaThe official right to act or to decide something.B1~48%
“I do not have the authority to change the price.”
3nounholdThe people who hold official power — police, government or officials.B1~2%
“The authorities closed the bridge until the flood went down.”
4nounorganisationAn official organisation with power over one area of public life.B2~36%
“The local authority collects the bins on a Tuesday.”
5nounknowledgeA person whose knowledge of a subject settles arguments about it.B2~2%
“He is the leading authority on medieval coins.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 9 sentences found in the wild and placed 8 of them on a sense (1 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.

Also practised as

nounThe recognised right to make decisions.

Where it comes from

Latin auctōritās came from auctor — a master, a leader, an originator — the same word that gave us author. Old French made it auctorité, and Middle English auctorite, which meant not only power but a quotation from a book that settled an argument. The old idea is still intact: authority is whatever nobody argues with.

Middle English
auctorite
English, today
authority

Built from

autorite · Middle English — authority, book or quotation that settles an argument
auctōritās · Latin — invention, advice, opinion, influence, command
auctor · Latin — master, leader, author

From Middle English auctorite. 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.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 7 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

authority in the wild

Each council is a municipal corporation and they are a form of unitary authority.
London boroughs
The Virtual International Authority File (VIAF) is an international authority file.
Virtual International Authority File
The practical authority given to the court is known as its jurisdiction, which describes the court's power to decide certain kinds of questions, or petitions put to it.
Court
For example, a legal guardian might be granted the authority to make decisions regarding a ward's housing or medical care or manage the ward's finances.
Legal guardian
In law, an appeal is the process in which cases or decisions are reviewed by a higher authority, where parties request a formal change to an official decision.
Appeal

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the auctor family

authority author

authority — used about once every 156 pages · #1,428 · point at the bar for the others

Definitions of authority

1nounauthorityThe power to give orders and expect them to be obeyed.B1~12%

“A sergeant has authority over everyone in the room.”

synonyms: power, command, control

2nounideaThe official right to act or to decide something.B1~48%

“I do not have the authority to change the price.”

3nounholdThe people who hold official power — police, government or officials.B1~2%

“The authorities closed the bridge until the flood went down.”

4nounorganisationAn official organisation with power over one area of public life.B2~36%

“The local authority collects the bins on a Tuesday.”

5nounknowledgeA person whose knowledge of a subject settles arguments about it.B2~2%

“He is the leading authority on medieval coins.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 9 sentences found in the wild and placed 8 of them on a sense (1 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.