super PAC

noun

A political action committee which may support a political candidate, and officially endorse one, but is legally bound to not coordinate with any candidate, and is not limited in financial contributions from donors or financial spending.

Similar
independent-expenditure only committee

Meanings

nounsuper PAC (plural super PACs)

plural super PACs

  1. USgovernmentA political action committee which may support a political candidate, and officially endorse one, but is legally bound to not coordinate with any candidate, and is not limited in financial contributions from donors or financial spending.

    Mr. Musk remains Mr. Trump’s biggest political financial supporter — just this week his super PAC aired $1 million worth of ads that said, “Thank you, President Trump”[…].

    2025 March 7, Jonathan Swan, Maggie Haberman, “Inside the Explosive Meeting Where Trump Officials Clashed With Elon Musk”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 07 Mar 2025
    1 more example

    Court decisions have established that super PACs are supposed to act independently of a candidate, with no coordination permitted. But the indictment focused on the suspicious timing of hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations to Mr. Menendez’s re-election campaign from a generous friend who allegedly sought government favors through the senator’s influence.

    2015 April 13, “On the Trail of Super PAC Money”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 16 Jun 2022

    Synonyms: independent-expenditure only committee

Synonyms & antonyms

nounA political action committee which may support a political candidate, and officially endorse one, but is legally bound to not coordinate with any candidate, and is not limited in financial contributions from donors or financial spending.

Similar
independent-expenditure only committee

Origin

Coined by reporter Eliza Newlin Carney in 2010.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Japanese 特別政治活動委員会
  • 特別政治活動委員会 (tokubetsu seiji katsudō i'in-kai)independent expenditure-only PAC
Cite this entry
APA

super PAC. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/super%20PAC

MLA

“super PAC.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/super%20PAC. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “super PAC,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/super%20PAC.

Source: super PAC on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.