Referendum

//ˌɹɛfəˈɹɛndəm// noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A direct popular vote on a proposed law or constitutional amendment.

    "a referendum on …"

  2. 2
    a legislative act is referred for final approval to a popular vote by the electorate wordnet
  3. 3
    An action, choice, etc., which is perceived as passing judgment on another matter.

    "My father is taking my decision on whether to go to university as a referendum on his performance as a parent, and it's very stressful."

Synonyms

All synonyms
australian ballotayeballotby-electioncanvasscanvassing

Example

More examples

"Kilby applied Emmet's theory to his investigation of the referendum held in Greece in 1948."

Etymology

From Latin referendum (“that which ought to be announced”), from refero (“I announce”).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.