Which to use
“authorise” is a verb and “authorized” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #37,329
- “authorise” frequency rank
- #5,856
- “authorized” frequency rank
- 43185
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | authorise | authorized |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Non-Oxford British English standard spelling of authorize. | Explicitly allowed. |
Letter map: authorise vs authorized
Shared letters muted; letters that set authorise and authorized apart highlighted. Shared run: 8.
Part-of-speech tell for authorise / authorized
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: authorise is averb and authorizedanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43185, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
authorise is recorded at frequency rank #37,329, classified as averb. authorized is at rank #5,856, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈɔθəɹaɪzd/.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 43185, this pair ranks #242,438 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of authorise vs authorized
Shared letters: aehiortu. Private to "authorise": s. Private to "authorized": dz.
"authorise" · 9 letters · shape VVCCVCVCV · "authorized" · 10 letters · shape VVCCVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- authorise ← atuhorise · auhtorise · authhorise · authoirse · authories · authorisse · authorrise · authorsie
- authorized ← atuhorized · auhtorized · authhorized · authoirzed · authoriezd · authorizde · authorizedd · authorizzed
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "authorise" for "authorized" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "authorise" or "authorized" show up more?
What to do next
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "authorise" and "authorized".
- Full dictionary entry for "authorise" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "authorized" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #242,438 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "authorise" and "authorized" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "authorise vs authorize". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #242,438 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.