parliament

English Online Dictionary. What means parliament‎? What does parliament mean?

English

Alternative forms

• parlament (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English parlement, from Anglo-Norman parliament, parlement, parliment and Old French parlement (“discussion, meeting, negotiation; assembly, council”), from parler (“to speak”) + -ment (“-ment”, suffix forming nouns from verbs, usually indicating an action or state resulting from them) (from Latin -mentum). Compare Medieval Latin parlamentum, parliamentum (“discussion, meeting; council or court summoned by the monarch”), Italian parlamento and Sicilian parramentu.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpɑːləmənt/, /ˈpɑːlɪəmənt/
• (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈpɑɹləmənt/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈpaːləmənt/
• Hyphenation: par‧lia‧ment

Noun

parliament (countable and uncountable, plural parliaments)

1. (now chiefly historical) A formal council summoned (especially by a monarch) to discuss important issues. [from 13th c.]
2. In many countries, the legislative branch of government, a deliberative assembly or set of assemblies whose elected or appointed members meet to debate the major political issues of the day, make, amend, and repeal laws, authorize the executive branch of government to spend money, and in some cases exercise judicial powers; a legislature. [from 14th c.]
3. A particular assembly of the members of such a legislature, as convened for a specific purpose or period of time (commonly designated with an ordinal number – for example, first parliament or 12th parliament – or a descriptive adjective – for example, Long Parliament, Short Parliament and Rump Parliament). [from 14th c.]
4. A gathering of birds, especially rooks or owls. [from 15th c.]
5. (historical) Parliament cake, a type of gingerbread. [from 19th c.]

Usage notes

The word is usually capitalised when used as a proper noun referring to a particular parliament.

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

• parliament on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Middle English

Noun

parliament

1. Alternative form of parlement