1. Official permission, often recorded in a document, or the act of formally granting that permission.
2. To provide reasonable grounds for an inference, conclusion, or other intellectual move.
3. Freedom to depart from usual rules, facts, or restraints, especially in creative expression.
Use it for
Words that belong together
- grant a license
- license an activity
- a license to operate
On the page
The license allowed access to the material but did not transfer ownership.
The authority licensed the activity subject to conditions stated in the agreement.
The comparison licenses a narrower claim about local practice, not a general theory of the institution.
An association does not by itself license a conclusion about causation.
The adaptation takes artistic license with chronology while preserving the sequence of the conflict.
Word forms
- Base
- license
- Past tense
- licensed
- Past participle
- licensed
- Present participle
- licensing
Full tense & aspect guide
- Present
- license
- Present continuous
- am/is/are licensing
- Present perfect
- have/has licensed
- Present perfect continuous
- have/has been licensing
- Past
- licensed
- Past continuous
- was/were licensing
- Past perfect
- had licensed
- Past perfect continuous
- had been licensing
- Future
- will license
- Future continuous
- will be licensing
- Future perfect
- will have licensed
- Future perfect continuous
- will have been licensing
Choose the auxiliary that agrees with your subject. These are constructions of one word, not separate entries.
Usage notes
Noun and verb. Licenses, licensed, licensed, licensing; future will license. Noun plural licenses. British noun spelling licence is a variant, not another entry; the British verb is normally license. Register: formal. Commonness: moderately common; evidential verb more specialized (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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