Authorizing

How to spell authorizing

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce authorizing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does authorizing mean?

1. verbGiving official permission or formal approval for something to happen.

Authorizing in a sentence

• The manager is authorizing the overtime payments for this month.

• The bank kept authorizing each large transfer before releasing the funds.

Where does authorizing come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin auctor, meaning an originator, promoter, or one who has the power to give a thing its standing; that noun in turn grew from augere, the verb 'to increase' or 'to cause to grow', the same root that lies behind 'augment' and 'auction'. From auctor came the medieval Latin auctorizare, meaning 'to give authority to' or 'to sanction'. English took this in through Old French autoriser during the 1300s, where it described granting official sanction or formal permission. The spelling later drifted toward 'author' under the influence of the related noun, which is why the silent gh is absent and the modern verb carries the -ize ending that turns the idea into an action. When you authorize something, you are literally lending it the weight of an 'author', an originator who stands behind it and makes it official.

How the word is built

• author- (from Latin auctor: originator, one who gives authority)
• -ize (verb-forming suffix)
• -ing (present participle)

British and American spelling

Authorizing is the American spelling. British English spells it authorising.