unicameral

uni·cam·er·al
U1N1I1C3A1M3E1R1A1L1
UK/juːniːˈkaməɹəl/US/junɪˈkæməɹəl/

adjective

Of, or having, a single legislative chamber.

UncommonScrabble 14

Meanings

adjectiveunicameral (not comparable)
  1. not comparablegovernmentOf, or having, a single legislative chamber.

    Those who criticize bicameralism stress that a unicameral legislature will be more efficient and faster in taking decisions.

    2002, Levent Gönenç, Prospects for Constitutionalism in Post-Communist Countries, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, →ISBN, page 341
    3 more examples

    [W]e could define a national parliament broadly as a Member State's central representative assembly which elects or at least dismisses the national government, and which holds it to account. This seems to be a robust definition comprising the unicameral parliaments, the lower chambers of the bicameral parliaments and the senates with censure powers in the EU Member States.

    2006, Philipp Kiiver, The National Parliaments in the European Union: A Critical View on EU Constitution-building, The Hague: Kluwer Law International, →ISBN, page 21

    The judicial branch of government in Norden is framed around the conception of the sovereignty of parliament. There is room for some independent legal review by the ordinary courts in Norway only. No country has a Constitutional Court, though human rights have constitutional protection. The five countries have unicameral National Assemblies. All forms of public power derive ultimately from Acts of parliament, which principle of legislative supremacy has not prohibited a fairly extensive system of local government autonomy, especially in Sweden, Denmark and Finland.

    2008, Josep M. Colomer, editor, Comparative European Politics, 3rd edition, Abingdon, Oxon.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 11

    In 1951 New Zealand's parliament was converted into a unicameral one with the abolition of the upper, nominated chamber, the Legislative Council.

    2009, Clyve Jones, “Epilogue”, in Clyve Jones, editor, A Short History of Parliament: England, Great Britain, the United Kingdom, Ireland & Scotland, Woodbridge, Suffolk: The Boydell Press, →ISBN, page 364

    Antonyms: bicameral, tricameral

  2. not comparablemediaOf a script or typeface: making no distinction between upper and lower case, but rather having only one case.

    In the ancient world, Greek was written in a script that was unicameral and atonic. It consisted of a single set of forms – the ones we now regard as upper case. There was little or no punctuation, and there were no diacritics.

    2004, Letter Arts Review, volume 19, Norman, Okla.: Calligraphy Review, →OCLC, page 37
    1 more example

    There have been several misunderstandings with regard to Georgian. The Unicode table speaks of "capital" Georgian letters (for example, georgian capital letter an) and of caseless letters (for example, georgian letter an). In fact, the modern Georgian script is unicameral. Two issues gave rise to this confusion. First, the fact that there are two types of Georgian fonts: those for running text and those for titles. […] Second, in the ancient Georgian script, khutsuri, there were indeed two cases.

    2007 September, Yannis Haralambous, translated by P. Scott Horne, Fonts & Encodings, Sebastopol, Calif.: O'Reilly Media, Inc., →ISBN, page 75

Synonyms & antonyms

adjectiveOf, or having, a single legislative chamber.

More synonyms by meaning

adjectivecomposed of one legislative body

Opposite

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

Translations

Bulgarian еднокамарен
  • еднокамарен (ednokamaren)having a single legislative chamber
Catalan unicameral, monocameral
  • unicameralhaving a single legislative chamber
  • monocameralhaving a single legislative chamber
Chinese Mandarin 一院制的
  • 一院制的 (yīyuànzhì de)having a single legislative chamber
Czech jednokomorový
  • jednokomorovýhaving a single legislative chamber
Dutch eenkamerig, unicameraal
  • eenkamerighaving a single legislative chamber
  • unicameraalhaving a single legislative chamber
  • monocameraalhaving a single legislative chamber
Finnish yksikamarinen
  • yksikamarinenhaving a single legislative chamber
French unicaméral, monocaméral
  • unicaméralhaving a single legislative chamber
  • monocaméralhaving a single legislative chamber
German Einkammer
  • Einkammerhaving a single legislative chamber
Icelandic með einni deild
  • með einni deildhaving a single legislative chamber
Indonesian unikameral
  • unikameralhaving a single legislative chamber
Italian unicamerale, monocamerale
  • unicameralehaving a single legislative chamber
  • monocameralehaving a single legislative chamber
Polish jednoizbowy, unikameralny
  • jednoizbowyhaving a single legislative chamber
  • unikameralnyhaving a single legislative chamber
Portuguese unicameral, unicamaral
  • unicameralhaving a single legislative chamber
  • unicamaralhaving a single legislative chamber
Romanian unicameral
  • unicameralhaving a single legislative chamber
Russian однопала́тный
  • однопала́тный (odnopalátnyj)having a single legislative chamber
Spanish unicameral
  • unicameralhaving a single legislative chamber
Swedish enkammar-
  • enkammar-having a single legislative chamber
Ukrainian однопала́тний
  • однопала́тний (odnopalátnyj)having a single legislative chamber

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

Cite this entry
APA

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

MLA

“unicameral.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unicameral. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “unicameral,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unicameral.

Source: unicameral on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.