"authority" meaning in English

See authority in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ɔːˈθɒrəti/ [UK], /əˈθɑrəti/ [US] Audio: en-us-authority.ogg [US] Forms: authority [singular], authorities [plural]
Head templates: {{noun|2=authorities}} [POS TABLE]
  1. To have authority means to have the power to make a decision.
    Sense id: simple-authority-en-noun-sAzmbuv5
  2. If you are an authority on something, many people think you know very, very much about it.
    Sense id: simple-authority-en-noun-UItg-ZLl
     
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "authority",
      "tags": [
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "authorities",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "2": "authorities"
      },
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "This judge has the authority to throw you in jail."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To have authority means to have the power to make a decision."
      ],
      "id": "simple-authority-en-noun-sAzmbuv5",
      "raw_tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The Pope is the highest authority in the Catholic church."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "If you are an authority on something, many people think you know very, very much about it."
      ],
      "id": "simple-authority-en-noun-UItg-ZLl",
      "raw_tags": [
        "countable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ɔːˈθɒrəti/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/əˈθɑrəti/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-authority.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "authority"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "authority",
      "tags": [
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "authorities",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "2": "authorities"
      },
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "Uncountable nouns"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "This judge has the authority to throw you in jail."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To have authority means to have the power to make a decision."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "Countable nouns"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The Pope is the highest authority in the Catholic church."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "If you are an authority on something, many people think you know very, very much about it."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "countable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ɔːˈθɒrəti/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/əˈθɑrəti/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-authority.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "authority"
}

Download raw JSONL data for authority meaning in English (0.9kB)

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-04-08 from the simplewiktionary dump dated 2025-04-03 using wiktextract (51d164f and fb63907). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.