Imprimatur

//ˌɪm.pɹɪˈmɑ.tɚ// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An official license to publish or print something, especially when censorship applies.

    "The Cheats · A Comedy · Written in the Year, M.DC.LXII. Imprimatur, Roger L'estrange. Nov. 5. 1663. By John Wilson"

  2. 2
    formal and explicit approval wordnet
  3. 3
    Any mark of official approval. broadly

    "Children, the final imprimatur to family life, are being borrowed, adopted, created by artificial insemination."

Synonyms

All synonyms
endorsementsanctionsanctionapprovalacceptanceaffirmance

Example

More examples

"The Russian language is a Slavic language spoken natively in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, and is widely used, although without official imprimatur, in Latvia, Estonia and many other countries that form the constituent republics of the former Soviet Union."

Etymology

From Latin imprimātur (“let it be printed”), third person singular present subjunctive passive form of imprimere (“to imprint”).

More for "imprimatur"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

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