Word.ws English Dictionary

authorities

authorities is the plural of authority.

Noun

authorities pl (plural only)

  1. (plural, plural-only) The bodies that have political or administrative power and control in a particular sphere.
  2. (plural, plural-only) The bodies that enforce law and order or provide a public service.
    • ICE arrested Old Orchard Beach Police Department reserve Officer Jon Luke Evans, of Jamaica, on July 25, as part of the agency’s effort to step up immigration enforcement. Officials with the town and police department have said federal authorities previously told them Evans was legally authorized...2025 August 18, Patrick Whittle, “Maine police officer arrested by ICE agrees to voluntarily leave the country”, in AP News

Meaning of authority

Noun

authority (countable and uncountable, plural authorities)

  1. (uncountable) Power or right to make or enforce rules, give orders, or impose obligation; or a position having such power or right.
    • I have the authority to penalise the staff in my department, but not the authority to sack them.
  2. (plural) Persons, regarded collectively, who occupy official positions of power; police or law enforcement.
    • Authorities say the suspect fled on foot.
  3. (countable) A reliable, definitive source of information on a subject.
    • the world's foremost authority on orangutans
  4. (uncountable) Status as a trustworthy source of information, reputation for mastery or expertise; or claim to such status or reputation.
    • Due to being inadequate for the deductive method of reasoning, the argument from authority is considered a logical fallacy.
    Synonyms:
    gravitas, cred
  5. (uncountable) Official permission; authorisation to act in some capacity on behalf of a ruling entity.
    • 'It seems to me,' remarked Mr Carrados, remembering something very similar not long before, 'that whatever anyone wants to do about Shakespeare, it is easy to find authority in his works for doing it.'1927, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados Mysteries
  6. (countable) A government-owned agency that runs a revenue-generating activity for public benefit.
    • New York Port Authority

Words formed from authorities

Phrases with authorities

Questions about authorities

What does authorities mean?
Authorities means the bodies that have political or administrative power and control in a particular sphere.
What is authorities the plural of?
Authorities is the plural of authority.
What part of speech is authorities?
Authorities is a noun.

Words near authorities in the dictionary

  1. authoritative
  2. authoritatively
  3. authoritativeness
  4. authoritativity
  5. authoritie
  6. authorities
  7. authoritive
  8. authority
  9. authority control
  10. authority figure
  11. authority figures

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: authorities (page history and authors); authority (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-authorities.wav.

Cite this entry: “authorities.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/authorities. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.