Authorization

How to spell authorization

13 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce authorization

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does authorization mean?

1. nounOfficial permission or approval for something to be done.

Authorization in a sentence

• The contractor needed written authorization before starting the demolition.

• The payment was declined because the bank refused authorization for the transaction.

Where does authorization come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin auctor, meaning 'originator', 'promoter', or 'one who vouches for something', which itself grew from the verb augere, 'to increase' or 'to cause to grow'. From auctor came the medieval Latin auctorizare, 'to give authority to' or 'to sanction', and English borrowed the underlying noun 'author' through Old French in the 1300s, originally meaning a person who originates or gives authority to a thing rather than just a writer. The verb 'authorize' developed the sense of formally granting power or permission, and the abstract noun 'authorization' followed, naming the act of granting that permission. The spelling trap lives in the unstressed middle and the ending: writers reach for the -ize/-ization core, then must decide between the -z- and the British -s- form, while the silent 'h' carried over from the Latin auctor (later softened) is easy to drop. Knowing that author, authority, and authentic all share the same vouching root helps anchor the spelling.

How the word is built

• author (from auctor: originator, one who vouches)
• -ize (verb suffix)
• -ation (noun of action)