Legislature

Definition: Legislature

Legislature

Noun

1. Persons who make or amend or repeal laws.

Date "legislature" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1690. (references)

Specialty Definitions: Legislature

Domain	Definitions
19th Century Satire	From Lat. lego, to bring together, and latro, to bark or bluster; possibly from lex, law, and latens, unknown. Hence, a company of men brought together to bluster, or a company of law makers who know nothing about law. Source: Foolish Dictionary, 1904.
Dream Interpretation	To dream that you are a member of a legislature, foretells you will be vain of your possessions and will treat members of your family unkindly. You will have no real advancement. Source: Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted ....
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Specialty Definition: Legislature

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

A legislature is a governmental deliberative body with the power to adopt laws. Legislatures are known by many names including parliament, senate, or congress. In parliamentary systems of government, the legislature is formally supreme and appoints the executive. In presidential systems of government, the legislature is considered a branch of government which is equal to the executive.

The power of legislatures vary widely from country to country. A rubber stamp legislature is a derogative name used for a legislature that has no real power and simply approves bills which are put before it.

Legislatures can be roughly divided into two groups: unicameral legislatures and bicameral legislatures. The latter are composed of two separate divisions or houses (bi two, camera chamber) with different duties, powers, and methods for selection of members. Examples of bicameral legislatures include the British Parliament (divided into the House of Lords and the House of Commons) and the United States Congress (divided into the Senate and the House of Representatives). Generally both houses must agree on important legislation for it to be enacted. Examples of unicameral legislatures include those of the Canadian provinces and territories.

That branch of government whose function is to enact laws. Under the United States Constitution, this power is given to Congress. The powers of Congress are limited to those contained in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution. Among these powers are the power to tax, the power to regulate interstate and foreign commerce, and the power to declare war, among others.

The legislative branch of government in the United States is limited by the separation of powers among the other branches of government. For example, the Executive branch headed by the President of the United States has the power veto legislation. The Judicial branch also maintains a check on the power of the legislature called judicial review, in which legislation is examined to ensure its compatibility with the Constitution. Legislation found to be incompatible is struck down.

Compare this system of checks and balances with the system in the United Kingdom. There, the executive is the British monarch, who is essentially a figurehead whose power is restricted by convention and public opinion. The Prime Minister, generally regarded as being the real authority in the UK, is himself or herself a member of Parliament, which is the legislature.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Legislature."

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Synonyms: Legislature

Synonyms: general assembly (n), law-makers (n), legislative assembly (n). (additional references)

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Synonyms within Context: Legislature

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Direction	Noun: direction; management, managery; government, gubernation, conduct, legislation, regulation, guidance; bossism; legislature; steerage, pilotage; reins, reins of government; helm, rudder, needle, compass; guiding star, load star, lode star, pole star; cynosure.
Government	Legislature, judiciary, administration.
Legality	Legislature; law, code, corpus juris, constitution, pandect, charter, enactment, statute, rule; canon; (precept); ordinance, institution, regulation; bylaw, byelaw; decree; (order); ordonnance; standing order; plebiscite; (choice).
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

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Crosswords: Legislature

English words defined with "legislature": appropriation ♦ Black Rod, bond ♦ Congress, Congress water ♦ expend ♦ first reading ♦ house ♦ joint, Joint meeting, Joint session, Julian Bond ♦ legislative, legislative council, Legislatorial ♦ majority leader, minority leader ♦ one-member ♦ parliamentary, Pragmatic sanction ♦ Qualified negative ♦ reconvene ♦ scrutin uninomial system, scrutin uninominal voting system, second reading, sergeant at arms, serjeant-at-arms, single-member system, sitting, smooth, Special law, special session, Special statute, Statehouse ♦ uninominal, uninominal system, uninominal voting system, United States Congress, use ♦ veto ♦ Witenagemote. (references)

Specialty definitions using "legislature": Analysis Of The Budget Bill, Approved By The Governor ♦ BIENNIAL REPORT, BLOOD MONEY, Budget Bill ♦ CHIEF WARDEN, Companion Bill, Concurrent Resolution, Constitutional Amendment, Corps Legislatif ♦ ELECTION ASSISTANT, election supervisor, Enrolled Bill ♦ Interim Study ♦ legislative advocate, Legislative Counsel, Legislature ♦ Northeast Interstate Dairy Compact ♦ Officers ♦ Public Law 94-171, Public Utility or Services Commissions ♦ Redistricting ♦ SCHOOL-PLANT CONSULTANT, state legislative district ♦ VERIFICATION PHASE. (references)

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Modern Usage: Legislature

Domain	Usage
Screenplays	The Virginia legislature story? (All the President's Men; writing credit: Carl Bernstein; Bob Woodward)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Commercial Usage: Legislature

Domain	Title
Books	A Legislature Comes of Age: Hong Kong's Search for Influence and Identity (reference) Kansas Legislative Handbook: A Guide to the Kansas Legislature and Its Members (reference) Manual of the Legislature of New Jersey, Two Hundred & Sixth Legislature, First Session, 1995 (reference) Record of Evidence and Statements Before the Penitentiary Investigating Committee: Appointed by the Thirty-Third Legislature of Texas (reference) State Legislature Use of Information Technology: 95th Congress, 1st Session, 1977. House. Document (reference) (more book examples)

Periodicals	Pocket Directory Of The Pennsylvania Legislature (reference) (more periodical examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Image Slideshow: Legislature

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Photo Album: Legislature

Thumbnail	Description & Credit	Thumbnail	Description & Credit
	The legislature of '60-- moving the Capital.Credit: Library of Congress.		Florida state libraries crawling toward the '67 Florida state legislature.Credit: Library of Congress.
	Mrs. James Rector of Columbus, Ohio consulting with W.D. Jameson on the suffrage amendment in the Tennessee legislature, with Miss Anita Pollitzer of Charleston, S.C., and Miss Sue White of Nashville, Tenn.] / Service Photographic Co., Columbus, Ohio.Credit: Library of Congress.		For the people? : representative government and the Arizona legislature.Credit: Library of Congress.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Familiar Quotations: Legislature

Author	Quotation
Gideon J. Tucker	No man's life, liberty or property are safe while the Legislature is in session.
John Marshall	An act of the legislature, repugnant to the constitution, is void.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Historic Usage: Legislature

Author	Date	Quotation
John Locke	1690	The legislative also in this case being supposed to consist of several persons, (for if it be a single person, it cannot but be always in being, and so will, as supreme, naturally have the supreme executive power, together with the legislative) may assemble, and exercise their legislature, at the times that either their original constitution, or their own adjournment, appoints, or when they please; if neither of these hath appointed any time, or there be no other way prescribed to convoke them: for the supreme power being placed in them by the people, it is always in them, and they may exercise it when they please, unless by their original constitution they are limited to certain seasons, or by an act of their supreme power they have adjourned to a certain time; and when that time comes, they have a right to assemble and act again. (Second Treatise of Government)
US Declaration of Independence	1776	We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. (reference)
US Constitution	1791	Clause 1: The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof, (See Note 3) for six Years; and each Senator shall have one Vote. (reference)
Amendment to US Constitution	1795-1996	But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age,* and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State. (reference)
Marbury v. Madison	1803	The oath of office, too, imposed by the legislature, is completely demonstrative of the legislative opinion on this subject. (reference)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Use in Literature: Legislature

Title	Author	Quote
Gulliver's Travels	Swift, Jonathan	And these two bodies make up the most august assembly in Europe, to whom, in conjunction with the prince, the whole legislature is committed.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Non-Fiction Usage: Legislature

Subject	Topic	Quote
Business		A new legal framework, which calls for unbundling of activities, competition, and a spot energy market has been recently passed by the legislature. (references)
		There is one exception, however, and that is the EU block exemption rules, which have been incorporated into Swedish legislature virtually verbatim. (references)
		As a result, it was previously possible to consider that the terms used by the French legislature dealt more with external features of the software than with its internal specifications. (references)
Children	Israel and the occupied territories	Government ministries, children's rights groups, and members of the legislature often cooperate on children's rights issues. (references)
Civil Liberties	Macau	Local law also protects citizens' right to petition the Government and the legislature. (references)
	Mexico	However, in 1998 the Mexico City legislature passed a law that gave the city government more influence over private charities. (references)
Economic History	Nigeria	During 2001 an "IT" bill was before the legislature. (references)
	Togo	This effectively put an end to the interim legislature. (references)
	Liberia	The executive branch heavily influences the legislature. (references)
Human Rights	India	The All Manipur Students Union (AMSU) called on all 60 members of the state legislature to resign. (references)
	Micronesia	The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the legislature. (references)
	Brazil	A study by the Bahia State legislature found that between 1994 and 1999 extermination groups killed 438 persons in the state. (references)
Indigenous People	Mexico	In 1998 Quintana Roo's state Legislature passed a similar usages and customs law. (references)
	Canada	The treaty was ratified by the Nisga'a people in 1998 and by the provincial legislature in 1999. It was debated and passed by Parliament in 1999. Although the British Columbia legislature ratified the treaty, two groups expressed their intention to challenge the treaty in court. (references)
	Venezuela	The groups had charged that only the legislature may alter the nature of the reserve; that the public review process prior to the change was inadequate; and that expanded mining activities would affect adversely the health of the Warao, Arawako, Karina, Akawaio, and Pemon indigenous communities that inhabit the Imataca watershed area. (references)
Minorities	Ukraine	Demonstrations held on the anniversary of the deportation of Crimean Tatars during the year were smaller and less politicized; however, Crimean-Tatar leaders continued to call for changes in the electoral law that would allow them to achieve greater representation in the Crimean legislature. (references)
	Spain	The Law of the Catalan Language, approved by the Catalan regional legislature (Generalitat) in 1998, stipulates the use of Catalan as the official language in local government and administrative offices, regional courts, publicly owned corporations, and private companies subsidized by the Catalan regional Government. (references)
Political Economy	Venezuela	The MVR also won 92 seats in the 165-member legislature. (references)
Political Rights	Djibouti	No women served in the legislature. (references)
	Marshall Islands	This group dominates the legislature as well. (references)
	Kyrgyz Republic	Women held only 7 of 105 seats in the legislature. (references)
Trade	Costa Rica	Most of these taxes were to be eliminated by a bill introduced into the legislature in 2000, but the bill was ultimately rejected. (references)
	Costa Rica	Disbursements of loans from the multilateral development banks to the government are generally delayed by the requirement that the legislature ratify the loans, difficulties in obtaining local currency counterpart funds required by the banks, and administrative delays. (references)
Women	Mexico	Women's and human rights groups protested the revisions, and the federal legislature promised to take action if the state congress did not amend the changes. (references)
Worker Rights	Guatemala	In April and May the National Legislature passed two sets of reforms to the national Labor Code. (references)
	Venezuela	Under the 1990 Labor Code, minimum wage rates are set by administrative decree, which the legislature may suspend or ratify but may not change. (references)
	Slovenia	Unions formally and in practice are independent of the Government and political parties, although individual union members hold positions in the legislature. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

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Spoken Usage: Legislature

Speaker	Phrase(s)
Robert Novak	There's been a great deal of opposition in the North Carolina legislature over a plan by the University of North Carolina to require reading of a book about the Koran for incoming freshman.
Rush Limbaugh	If you want a law passed, and it's a good law as they often are, you are supposed to pass it in the legislature.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Speeches: Legislature

Speaker	Term	Phrase(s)
George Washington	1789-1797	I can not forbear to bring again into the view of the Legislature the subject of a revision of the judiciary system.
John Adams	1797-1801	But perhaps it will be said, that we are to enjoy the British constitution in our supreme legislature, the parliament, not in our provincial legislatures.
Thomas Jefferson	1801-1809	The convention with the State of Georgia has been ratified by their legislature, and a repurchase from the Creeks has been consequently made of a part of the Talasscee country.
James Madison	1809-1817	That article which leaves it in the power of the legislature to ascertain its own emolument is one to which I allude.
James Monroe	1817-1825	This course has been systematically pursued in the late occurrences with France and Great Britain, and in strict accord with the views of the Legislature.
John Quincy Adams	1825-1829	Repeated, liberal, and candid discussions in the Legislature have conciliated the sentiments and approximated the opinions of enlightened minds upon the question of constitutional power.
Andrew Jackson	1829-1837	Before the expiration of the charter the stock-holders of the bank obtained an act of incorporation from the legislature of Pennsylvania, excluding only the United States.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Usage Frequency: Legislature

"Legislature" is generally used as a noun (common) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Legislature" is used about 823 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Noun (common)	100%	823	8,499

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

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Frequency of Internet Keywords: Legislature

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Expression	Frequency per Day	Expression	Frequency per Day
texas legislature	783	oklahoma legislature	66
louisiana legislature	302	illinois legislature	64
legislature online texas	202	national conference of state legislature	60
california legislature	193	arizona state legislature	56
florida legislature	189	georgia legislature	55
nevada legislature	160	legislature russian	54
alabama legislature	125	nj legislature	53
texas state legislature	120	wisconsin legislature	50
new jersey legislature	119	pennsylvania legislature	48
michigan legislature	108	north carolina legislature	48
louisiana state legislature	101	massachusetts legislature	48
nevada state legislature	99	legislature state	45
california state legislature	96	missouri legislature	43
washington state legislature	91	kansas legislature	40
oregon legislature	87	colorado legislature	40
legislature	87	iowa legislature	40
arizona legislature	80	oregon state legislature	39
new york state legislature	78	maine legislature	38
ohio legislature	72	tennessee legislature	38
minnesota legislature	71	arkansas legislature	38
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Modern Translations: Legislature

Language		Translations for "legislature"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		organ ligjvënës (legislative), godinë e parlamentit. (various references)

Arabic		‏مجلس تشريعي (house), ‏هيئة تشريعية. (various references)

Bulgarian		законодателно тяло, законодателна власт. (various references)

Chinese		立法机关, 立法機關 . (various references)

Czech		zákonodárný sbor. (various references)

Danish		lovgivende forsamling (legislative, legislative body). (various references)

Farsi		مجلس (Assembly, Congress, Convocation, Council, Parliament, Scene, Session), هیلت مقننه , قوه مقننه . (various references)

French		corps législatif (legislative, legislative body). (various references)

German		legislative. (various references)

Greek		βουλή (diet, house, parliament, state house), νομοθετικό σώμα, νομοθετικό (legislative, legislative body), νομοθετική εξουσία (legislative, legislative body). (various references)

Hebrew		בית מחוקקים (parliament), רשות �"מחוקקקת (legislative). (various references)

Hungarian		törvényhozó testület (colloquy, legislative body), törvényhozás (enactment, law-making, legislation, legislative). (various references)

Italian		legislatura, corpo legislativo. (various references)

Japanese Kanji		立法機関 . (various references)

Japanese Katakana		りっぽうきか�". (various references)

Korean		입법부. (various references)

Manx		Tinvaal (Tynwald), quaiyl (assembly, court, guild, parliament, session, tribunal). (various references)

Pig Latin		egislaturelay

Portuguese		legislador (lawless, lawmaker, polio). (various references)

Romanian		legislaturã. (various references)

Russian		законодательный орган (legislative body), законодательная власть. (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		zakonodavstvo (law-making, legislation), zakonodavno telo. (various references)

Spanish		legislatura. (various references)

Swedish		lagstiftande församling (legislative assembly). (various references)

Turkish		yasama organı (legislative), yasama meclisi (chamber). (various references)

Ukranian		законодавча влада, законодавчий орган (assembly). (various references)

Vietnamese		cơ quan lập pháp. (various references)

Welsh		deddfwriaeth (legislation). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

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Derivations & Misspellings: Legislature

Derivations
	Words beginning with "legislature": legislatures. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Legislature" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: legilature, legislaturer, legislaturs. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

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Rhyming with "Legislature"

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "legislature" (pronounced le"juslā'kher)
4	-l ā' kh er	nomenclature.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

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Anagrams: Legislature

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-e-e-g-i-l-l-r-s-t-u"
	-1 letter: treillages.
	-2 letters: allergies, allergist, galleries, guerillas, laetriles, legislate, ligatures, regulates, tailleurs, treillage.
	-3 letters: allegers, ateliers, earliest, egalites, galilees, gaselier, gestural, glariest, guerilla, laetrile, leaguers, lealties, leariest, legalise, legalist, ligature, ligulate, literals, realties, regulate, resalute, tailleur, talliers, tillages, uralites.
	-4 letters: aeriest, aiglets, aigrets, alleger, alleges, allures, atelier, augites, austere, eaglets, egalite, elaters, elegist, elegits, eluates.
	Words containing the letters "a-e-e-g-i-l-l-r-s-t-u"
	+1 letter: legislatures, metallurgies.
	+4 letters: electrosurgical.
	+5 letters: counterguerillas, pyrometallurgies.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.