sanction
SANGK-shunnounMeaning official approval; also, a penalty for breaking a rule
Memory hook SANCTION: an OK... or a PENALTY. Judge Edwin stamps OK on the parade plan, a sanction that lets it go ahead; then he fines the band that marched through the flower beds, a sanction of the other kind.
The club cannot hold its bake sale without the principal’s sanction.
In context The league imposed a harsh sanction on the team for cheating: it was banned from the playoffs and had to give back its trophy.
Similar approval, permission, authorization, consent
Opposite disapproval, prohibition
From Latin sanctio, “a decree, a binding law,” from sancire (to make sacred, to decree).