authorities

1. 1.

   the organization that is the governing authority of a political unit

   “the government reduced taxes”

   “the matter was referred to higher authorities”

   Synonymsgovernmentregime

   Broaderpolity

   Narrowerauthoritarian statebureaucracyancien regimecourtDowning Streetempirefederal governmentgovernment-in-exilelocal governmentmilitary government

   Partsadministrationjudiciary

   government

Other forms of authorities

plural

authoritieses·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about authorities

What does authorities mean?

authorities means "the organization that is the governing authority of a political unit".

How many syllables are in authorities?

authorities has 4 syllables: au-tho-ri-ties. The stress falls on "tho". In IPA it is /əˈθɔɹətiz/.

What is another word for authorities?

Close synonyms include government, regime. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is authorities a common word?

authorities is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.