sanction

1. 1.

   give sanction to

   “I approve of his educational policies”

   SynonymsapproveO.K.okay

   Broaderauthorize

   Narrowervisabackconfirm
2. 2.

   give authority or permission to

   Broaderempower
3. 3.

   give religious sanction to, such as through on oath

   “sanctify the marriage”

   Broaderapprove

Other forms of sanction

plural

sanctions·

past tense

sanctioned·

present participle

sanctioning·

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 sanction

What does sanction mean?

sanction means "formal and explicit approval". That is the primary sense; the word has 7 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in sanction?

sanction has 2 syllables: sanc-tion. The stress falls on "sanc". In IPA it is /ˈsæŋkʃən/.

What is another word for sanction?

Close synonyms include countenance, endorsement, indorsement, warrant, imprimatur. 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 sanction a common word?

sanction is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.