Webster's English Dictionary

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parliament

par.lia.ment \'pa:r-l*-m*nt, US also 'pa:rl-y*-\ n [ME, fr. OF parlement, 
   fr. parler] 1: a formal conference for the discussion of public affairs; 
   specif :: a council of state in early medieval England 2a: an assemblage of 
   the nobility, clergy, and commons called together by t he British sovereign 
   as the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom 2b: a similar 
   assemblage in another nation or state  3a: the supreme legislative body of 
   a usu. major political unit that is a c ontinuing institution comprising a 
   series of individual parliaments 3b: the British House of Commons  4: one 
   of several principal courts of justice existing in France before the  
   revolution of 1789