proportional representation
noun
Simple meaning
A voting principle aimed at securing a close match between the percentage of votes that groups of candidates get in elections.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
pruhpawrshuhnuhlruhpruhzentayshuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
pɹəˈpɔɹʃənəlɹɛpɹəzɛnˈteɪʃən
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.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A voting principle aimed at securing a close match between the percentage of votes that groups of candidates (usually political parties) obtain in elections, and the percentage of seats they receive in the elected body.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: A voting principle aimed at securing a close match between the percentage of votes that groups of candidates (usually political parties) obtain in elections, and the percentage of seats they receive in the elected body.
Used this way, proportional representation is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in government or politics and ethics or values contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Government/politics
- Ethics/values
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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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.