authority
Pronunciation
  • (British) IPA: /ɔːˈθɒɹəti/, /ɔːˈθɒɹɪti/
  • (America) IPA: /əˈθɔɹəti/, /əˈθɑɹəti/
  • (obsolete) IPA: /ɒːˈtɒɹɪti/
Noun

authority

  1. (uncountable) The power to enforce rules or give orders.
    I have the authority to penalise the staff in my department, but not the authority to sack them.
    She lost all her respect and authority after turning up drunk to the meeting.
    Respect my authority!
    • 1883, Howard Pyle, The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood Chapter V
      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.
  2. (used in singular or plural form) Persons in command; specifically, government.
  3. (countable) A person accepted as a source of reliable information on a subject.
    the world's foremost authority on orangutans
    • 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.
  4. Government-owned agency which runs a revenue-generating activity.
    New York Port Authority
Translations Translations Translations Translations
  • Russian: администра́ция



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