authorized
AmericanOther Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of authorized
Explanation
Something that's authorized is officially approved. If the principal of your school has given you the go-ahead to throw a Hawaiian-themed party, you can call it an authorized luau. The adjective authorized comes from the verb authorize, which means "give formal approval or sanction to." Both words go back to the Latin root auctor, "authority." So when an authority grants her approval or permission to do something, it becomes authorized. You'll need an authorized passport if you want to travel to a foreign country.
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.
The target is a particularly tempting and well-authorized one for Irish assassins from Swift to Shaw: the smug face of English hypocrisy, personified in this case by a sanctimonious divorce judge named Sir Toby Routh.
From Time Magazine Archive
But as I desire to avoid all not well-authorized distinctions, I shall use the terms Teutonic and Germanic indiscriminately.
From The Moral and Intellectual Diversity of Races With Particular Reference to Their Respective Influence in the Civil and Political History of Mankind by Arthur, T. S. (Timothy Shay)
These felicitations come because well-authorized merchants in futures have been put out of countenance from the days of Jonah and Balaam till now.
From The Art of the Moving Picture by Lindsay, Vachel
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.
