different between authority vs leverage

English

Alternative forms

• authourity, authoritie, autority, auctoritie (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English auctorite, autorite (“authority, book or quotation that settles an argument”), from Old French auctorité, from Latin stem of auct?rit?s (“invention, advice, opinion, influence, command”), from auctor (“master, leader, author”). For the presence of the h, compare the etymology of author.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /???????ti/, /???????ti/
• (US) IPA^(key): /??????ti/, /??????ti/
• (obsolete) IPA^(key): /???t???ti/
• Hyphenation: au?thor?i?ty
• Rhymes: -???ti

Noun

authority (countable and uncountable, plural authorities)

1. (uncountable) The power to enforce rules or give orders.
   • 1883, Howard Pyle, The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood Chapter V

     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.

2. (used in singular or plural form) Persons in command; specifically, government.
3. (countable) 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.

4. Government-owned agency which runs a revenue-generating activity.

   New York Port Authority

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

See also

• have something on good authority

References

• authority at OneLook Dictionary Search
• authority in Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary, edited by The Keywords Project, Colin MacCabe, Holly Yanacek, 2018.
• authority in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

English

Etymology

lever +? -age

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?l?v(?)??d?/, /?li?v(?)??d?/

Noun

leverage (usually uncountable, plural leverages)

1. A force compounded by means of a lever rotating around a pivot; see torque.
2. By extension, any influence which is compounded or used to gain an advantage.
3. (finance) The use of borrowed funds with a contractually determined return to increase the ability of a business to invest and earn an expected higher return, but usually at high risk.

   Leverage is great until something goes wrong with your investments and you still have to pay your debts.
4. (business) The ability to earn very high returns when operating at high capacity utilization of a facility.

   Their variable-cost-reducing investments have dramatically increased their leverage.

Synonyms

• (force compounded by a lever): mechanical advantage
• (use of borrowed fund): gearing
• (ability to earn high returns from high capacity utilization): operating leverage

Translations

Verb

leverage (third-person singular simple present leverages, present participle leveraging, simple past and past participle leveraged)

1. (transitive, chiefly US, slang, business) To use; to exploit; to manipulate in order to take full advantage (of something).

Synonyms

• (take full advantage of): exploit, use

Derived terms

• leveraged buyout

Translations