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Decree vs Authority - What's the difference?

decree | authority | Related terms |

Decree is a related term of authority.


As nouns the difference between decree and authority

is that decree is an edict or law while authority is (label) the power to enforce rules or give orders.

As a verb decree

is to command by a decree.

decree

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • An edict or law.
  • * Bible, Luke ii. 1
  • There went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Poor hand, why quiverest thou at this decree ?
  • (legal) The judicial decision in a litigated cause rendered by a court of equity.
  • (legal) The determination of a cause in a court of admiralty or court of probate.
  • Usage notes

    * It is accurate to use the word judgment' for a decision of a '''court of law''', and '''decree''' from a ' court of equity , although the former term now includes both.

    Derived terms

    * (l) * (l) * (l) * (l)

    Verb

    (d)
  • To command by a decree.
  • A court decrees a restoration of property.
  • * Bible, Job xxii. 28
  • Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee.

    Anagrams

    *

    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