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Title of authority

Title of authority

Overview
Title of authority, title of office or title of command is the official designation of a position held in an organization (e.g. in government
Government
A government is the body within a community, political entity or organization which has the authority to make and enforce rules, laws and regulations.....

 or corporation
Corporation
A corporation is a legal entity separate from the shareholders and employees. In British tradition it is the term designating a body corporate, where it can be either a corporation sole or a corporation aggregate...

) associated with certain duties of authority.

Semi-formally, the title of office may be referred to as "position", or "office", as, e.g., in the expression "the office of vice president
Vice president
A vice president is an officer in government or business who is below a president in rank. The name comes from the Latin vice meaning 'in place of'. In some countries, the vice president is called the deputy president...

".

When used in conjunction with proper name
Proper name
"A proper name [is] a word that answers the purpose of showing what thing it is that we are talking about" writes John Stuart Mill in A System of Logic , "but not of telling anything about it"...

s, titles of office are capitalized (and usually not otherwise): The Right Honourable
The Right Honourable
The Right Honourable is an honorific prefix that is traditionally applied to certain people in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Anglophone Caribbean and other Commonwealth Realms, and occasionally elsewhere...

 Stephen Harper
Stephen Harper
Stephen Joseph Harper, PC, MP is the 22nd and current Prime Minister of Canada, and leader of the Conservative Party. Harper became Prime Minister after his party won a minority government in the January 2006 federal election...

, Prime Minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. The position is usually held by, but need not always be held by, a politician. In many systems, the prime minister selects and can dismiss other members of the cabinet, and...

 of Canada
Canada
Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

.
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Encyclopedia
Title of authority, title of office or title of command is the official designation of a position held in an organization (e.g. in government
Government
A government is the body within a community, political entity or organization which has the authority to make and enforce rules, laws and regulations.....

 or corporation
Corporation
A corporation is a legal entity separate from the shareholders and employees. In British tradition it is the term designating a body corporate, where it can be either a corporation sole or a corporation aggregate...

) associated with certain duties of authority.

Semi-formally, the title of office may be referred to as "position", or "office", as, e.g., in the expression "the office of vice president
Vice president
A vice president is an officer in government or business who is below a president in rank. The name comes from the Latin vice meaning 'in place of'. In some countries, the vice president is called the deputy president...

".

When used in conjunction with proper name
Proper name
"A proper name [is] a word that answers the purpose of showing what thing it is that we are talking about" writes John Stuart Mill in A System of Logic , "but not of telling anything about it"...

s, titles of office are capitalized (and usually not otherwise): The Right Honourable
The Right Honourable
The Right Honourable is an honorific prefix that is traditionally applied to certain people in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Anglophone Caribbean and other Commonwealth Realms, and occasionally elsewhere...

 Stephen Harper
Stephen Harper
Stephen Joseph Harper, PC, MP is the 22nd and current Prime Minister of Canada, and leader of the Conservative Party. Harper became Prime Minister after his party won a minority government in the January 2006 federal election...

, Prime Minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. The position is usually held by, but need not always be held by, a politician. In many systems, the prime minister selects and can dismiss other members of the cabinet, and...

 of Canada
Canada
Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. In this example both "The Right Honourable" and "Prime Minister" may be called "title of office". The former one is also referred to as "style"
Style (manner of address)
A style of office, or honorific, is a legal, official, or recognized title, in other words a term which by tradition or law precedes a reference to a person who holds a post, or which is used to refer to the political office itself. An honorific can also be awarded to an individual in a personal...

(manner of address), the latter one is the designation of a position.