Sanctioned (8)
<span class="explanation-format__ClueExplanation">'<span class="explanation-format__original">sanctioned</span>' is the definition.<br/ ><span class="explanation-format__explanation">(thesaurus)</span><br/ ><br/ >This is the entire clue.<br/ ></span>
(Other definitions for official that I've seen before include "It's no rumour - he's in charge" , "Public employee" , "Employee of bureaucracy - it's authorized" , "One is in a position of authority" , "executive" .)
<span class="explanation-format__ClueExplanation">'<span class="explanation-format__original">sanctioned</span>' is the definition.<br/ ><span class="explanation-format__explanation">('approve' can be a synonym of 'sanction')</span><br/ ><br/ >This is all the clue.<br/ ></span>
(Other definitions for approved that I've seen before include "Officially sanctioned" , "Sanctioned, authorised" , "Accepted as satisfactory" , "Sanctioned, authorized" , "confirmed" .)
(Another definition for countenanced that I've seen is " Admitted as possible".)