approval
Americannoun
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the act of approving; approbation.
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formal permission or sanction.
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Philately. one of a group of selected stamps sent by a dealer to a prospective customer for examination and either purchase or return.
idioms
noun
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the act of approving
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formal agreement; sanction
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a favourable opinion; commendation
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(of articles for sale) for examination with an option to buy or return
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of approval
Explanation
Approval is a formal agreement. It's probably not a good idea to mail the invitations for your beach party until you've gotten official approval for the enormous bonfire you're planning to light. Building designs, budgets, grant applications — these all require official approval before they can be put into effect. You can also use the word approval to talk about less formal permission, like a teacher's approval of your plan to buy pizza for the whole class. Approval also means the belief that something is good, like your approval of your neighbor's purple house. Until 1800, it was much more common for people to use the word approvance to mean the same thing.
Vocabulary lists containing approval
Face It: Selfie Vocab
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This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for October 9–October 15, 2021
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Catching Fire
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
To investigate this possibility, scientists from The George Institute for Global Health launched a series of studies examining finerenone in populations beyond those covered by its current approval.
From Science Daily • Jun. 8, 2026
The company will expand its "ask" feature which can enable parents to control whom their children can speak with, requiring parental approval before they can converse with an unknown person.
From BBC • Jun. 8, 2026
Bass has pushed back on Raman’s assertions, saying she secured two consecutive years of reductions in homelessness — the first recorded in city history — and fast-tracked approval of 40,000 units of affordable housing.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 8, 2026
A Cboe spokesperson said that the company does not view the CFTC’s perpetual futures approval as a “meaningful risk.”
From Barron's • Jun. 8, 2026
Miss Priest murmured her approval, then turned to Tiamat and made a deep curtsy.
From "Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher" by Bruce Coville
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
