parliamentary

adjective

Simple meaning

Having the supreme executive and legislative power resting with a cabinet of ministers chosen from, and responsible to a parliament.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

pahrluhmehnteree

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice

IPA pronunciation (US)

pɑɹləˈmɛntɚi

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

Relating to or having the nature of a parliament
Of, relating to, or enacted by a parliament.
Having the supreme executive and legislative power resting with a cabinet of ministers chosen from, and responsible to a parliament.
Alternative letter-case form of parliamentary, typically in reference to a specific parliament, usually that of England or the United Kingdom.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty: B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency: Moderately Common
Typical Use: Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Relating to or having the nature of a parliament

Used this way, parliamentary is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in government or politics contexts.

Emotional tone: Neutral
Formality: Neutral
Intensity: Not strongly marked
How common: Moderately common
Connotation: No strong connotation
Usage feel: Neutral and straightforward

Where it naturally appears

Government/politics

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use parliamentary

“Parliamentary reform.”adjective

Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Relating

parliamentary papersparliamentary majorityparliamentary control

Other combinations

parliamentary reformparliamentary historyparliamentary affairsparliamentary electionparliamentary representation

Tap the highlighted word to open its own entry.

Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

parliamentary lawnounCompound term
A body of rules followed by an assembly.
parliamentary monarchynounCompound term
A monarchy having a parliament.
parliamentary procedurenounCompound term
A body of rules followed by an assembly.
parliamentary agentnounCompound term
A person who is employed to look after the affairs of businesses that are affected by legislation of the British Parliament.
parliamentary democracynounCompound term
A democracy having a parliament.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

Use This Word

See how this word sounds in a real sentence.

Ask Vocabaura

Understand the word your way.

What Does It Mean Here?

Words can change meaning depending on context.

Use it yourself

Knowing “parliamentary” starts when you use it. Pick a next step, all free.

Know the meaning? Practice using it in a real situation, free, no credits.

Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.