authorise

Authorise is a verb meaning to grant official permission or power to someone to perform a task or to undertake an action. It can also refer to giving formal approval or a mandate, or to empower an organization to act on behalf of another party. The noun forms are authorisation (British English) and authorization (American English), referring to the act of authorising or the state of being authorised, as well as to the specific permission or license granted. A person who has been authorised is authorised; a person who authorises is the authoriser or authorizing official.

In legal and governmental contexts, authorisation is often required for actions such as signing contracts, releasing confidential information, or conducting regulated activities. In business, authorisation is used to delegate authority and to set permissions in corporate governance.

In computing and information security, authorization denotes the process of determining whether a user or system has the rights to access a resource. This is separate from authentication, which verifies identity. Common authorization methods include access control lists, role-based access control, and token-based systems. In web services, an authorization header or access token is used to grant access to protected resources.

Etymology: from Latin auctor, authority, through Old French authoriser, later Middle English. The term reflects the granting of legal or formal power.

See also: authorization, authentication, access control, permissions.