authoritative

adjective

au·thor·i·ta·tive | \ ə-ˈthär-ə-ˌtā-tiv,

ȯ-, -ˈthȯr-\

Definition of authoritative

1 : having, marked by, or proceeding from authority authoritative church doctrines an authoritative decision an authoritative manner

2 : possessing recognized or evident authority : clearly accurate or knowledgeable an authoritative critique an authoritative source of information

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Examples of authoritative in a Sentence

The book is an authoritative guide to the city's restaurants. His manner is polite but authoritative. She addressed the group with an authoritative voice.

Recent Examples on the Web

This is different from Hollywood studios with theatrical releases, whose box office numbers are certified by authoritative box office tracking firms. — Julia Alexander, The Verge, "Netflix says over 45 million accounts watched Bird Box — here’s what that means," 30 Dec. 2018 Butler is as authoritative as usual in the role of the captain, a working-class skipper who didn’t go to Annapolis but rather worked his way up through the ranks. — Soren Andersen, The Seattle Times, "‘Hunter Killer’: Gerard Butler leads a wild submarine ride," 25 Oct. 2018 The period detail is authoritative—you’ll close the book with a cache of unexpected knowledge about the tobacco, the spectacles and the concert pianos of the era—but rarely cumbersome. — Sam Sacks, WSJ, "Fiction Books: Grace Abounding to the Outsider Artist," 5 Oct. 2018 How to Get Started As an Authoritative Parent Want to start incorporating authoritative parenting techniques into your approach? — Marisa Lascala, Good Housekeeping, "What Is Authoritative Parenting? Experts Say It's the Best of All Worlds," 16 Nov. 2018 History is a mosaic of individual accounts of past events — not necessarily the most trenchant or authoritative accounts, but simply the ones that archivists could find. — Alex Kingsbury, BostonGlobe.com, "You’ve got mail — for now," 10 May 2018 Amid all the authoritative aspects of SFB’s limpid dancing, Sasha De Sola’s wondrous performance of the central of the dance’s five leading women deserves special mention. — Robert Greksovic, WSJ, "Dance as the Heart of the City," 7 Nov. 2018 Still, giving a single company power over your domain registration, certificates, authoritative DNS services, DNS lookups, and CDN delivery might just be a tad disconcerting to some. — Sean Gallagher, Ars Technica, "Cloudflare gets into registrar business with wholesale domains and free privacy," 28 Sep. 2018 That, according to the most authoritative research to date, is the amount of money humanity could save through a global shift to sustainable development. — David Roberts, Vox, "We could shift to sustainability and save $26 trillion. Why are aren’t we doing it?," 6 Sep. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'authoritative.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.