Authoritative

//ɔːˈθɒɹɪtətɪv// adj

adj ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Arising or originating from a figure of authority.

    "The authoritative rules in this school come not from the headmaster but from the aged matron."

  2. 2
    Highly accurate or definitive; treated or worthy of treatment as a scholarly authority.

    "This book is the world's most authoritative guide to insect breeding habits."

  3. 3
    Having a commanding style.

    "He instructed us in that booming, authoritative voice of his."

Adjective
  1. 1
    endowed with authority wordnet
  2. 2
    having authority or ascendancy or influence wordnet
  3. 3
    of recognized authority or excellence wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
influentialofficialstandardabsoluteabsolutistabsolutistic

Example

More examples

"On May 6, 2014, the Administration released the Third U.S. National Climate Assessment (NCA), the most authoritative and comprehensive source of scientific information to date about climate change impacts across all U.S. regions and on critical sectors of the economy."

Etymology

From authorit(y) + -ative.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.