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What is the difference between authoritarian and authority?

authoritarian | authority |

Authority is a related term of authoritarian.



As nouns the difference between authoritarian and authority

is that authoritarian is one who commands absolute obedience to his or her authority while authority is the power to enforce rules or give orders.

As an adjective authoritarian

is of, or relating to, absolute obedience to an authority.

authoritarian

English

(wikipedia authoritarian)

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Of, or relating to, absolute obedience to an authority.
  • Characterised by a tyrannical obedience to an authority; dictatorial.
    • The authoritarian government was demanding stricter laws for low-wage peasants.
  • Tending to impose one's demands upon others as if one was an authority.

    • Synonyms

    * (sense, tending to impose one's demands) commanding, imperious * (characterised by a tyrannical obedience to an authority) illiberal, oppressive * See also

    Antonyms

    * (characterised by a tyrannical obedience to an authority) liberal

    Derived terms

    * authoritarianism * antiauthoritarian

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • One who commands absolute obedience to his or her authority.
    • The dictator was an authoritarian .
  • One who follows and is excessively obedient to authority.
  • * 2006', Robert Altemeyer, ''The '''Authoritarians

    • authority

    English

    Alternative forms

    * authourity (obsolete)

    Noun

  • (label) The power to enforce rules or give orders.
  • * 1883 , (Howard Pyle), (The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood)
    • But in the meantime Robin Hood and his band lived quietly in Sherwood Forest, without showing their faces abroad, for Robin knew that it would not be wise for him to be seen in the neighborhood of Nottingham, those in authority being very wroth with him.
  • (label) Persons in command; specifically, government.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1927, author= F. E. Penny
    • , chapter=4, title= Pulling the Strings , passage=The case was that of a murder. It had an element of mystery about it, however, which was puzzling the authorities . A turban and loincloth soaked in blood had been found; also a staff.}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-10, volume=408, issue=8848, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= Legal highs: A new prescription , passage=No sooner has a [synthetic] drug been blacklisted than chemists adjust their recipe and start churning out a subtly different one. These “legal highs” are sold for the few months it takes the authorities to identify and ban them, and then the cycle begins again.}}
  • (label) A person accepted as a source of reliable information on a subject.
  • * 1930 September 18, Albert Einstein, as quoted in Albert Einstein: Creator and Rebel (1988) by Banesh Hoffman
    • To punish me for my contempt of authority', Fate has made me an ' authority myself.

    Derived terms

    * moral authority

    Related terms

    * author * authorization * authoritarian

    Statistics

    * English terms derived from Latin