Skip to main content
PlainSpell

authority

au·thor·i·ty/əˈθɔɹədi/noun

authority is spelled A-U-T-H-O-R-I-T-Y, 4 syllables: au·thor·i·ty. The wrong spelling people search most is authorithy: about 10 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 370 of all searches for the word. Authority is a noun meaning “Power or right to make or enforce rules, give orders, or impose obligation; or a position having such power…”. The plural of authority is authorities.

How many letters and syllables are in authority?

Letters9: A-U-T-H-O-R-I-T-Y
Syllables4: au·thor·i·ty
In writing65 times per million words; the 1,636th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched1; the most searched, authorithy, about 10 Bing searches a month (all of them)

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).

How do you spell authority?

Authority is spelled A-U-T-H-O-R-I-T-Y. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 372 of the searches for authority in either form.

authoritythe right spelling3,710 searches a month
authorithyan extra h10 searches a month

Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.

How common is authority?

Authority appears 65 times per million words in written English, the 1,636th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce authority?

  • UK /ɔːˈθɒɹəti/
  • UK /ɔːˈθɒɹɪti/
  • US /əˈθɔɹədi/

Authority has 4 syllables, split au·thor·i·ty in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-authority.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of authority

  • authorities plural
  • authourity
  • authoritie
  • autority
  • auctoritie

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does authority mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    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. 2

    Persons, regarded collectively, who occupy official positions of power; police or law enforcement.

    Authorities say the suspect fled on foot.

  3. 3

    A reliable, definitive source of information on a subject.

    the world's foremost authority on orangutans

  4. 4

    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.

  5. 5

    Official permission; authorisation to act in some capacity on behalf of a ruling entity.

  6. 6

    A government-owned agency that runs a revenue-generating activity for public benefit.

    New York Port Authority

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate authority?

Wiktionary records 2 abbreviations of authority: Auth., auth..

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Authority in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchautorité (power to enforce rules or give orders)
GermanAutorität (power to enforce rules or give orders), Behörde (police or law enforcement collectively)
Portugueseautoridade (power to enforce rules or give orders)
Spanishautoridad (power to enforce rules or give orders), policía, autoridades, fuerzas del orden (police or law enforcement collectively)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

What to look up after authority