checks and balances

noun

plural in form but sometimes singular in construction

: a system that allows each branch of a government to amend, override, or veto acts of another branch so as to prevent any one branch from exerting too much power or power beyond its authority

Things that for many decades were givens—the checks and balances on the executive, the role of the judiciary or the civil service, a media free from interference or vilification—now appear vulnerable.

—Emily Maitlis

"I do think that there is an expectation in our country that checks and balances is a good thing," [Senator John] Thune said …

—Stephen Groves

broadly : a system in which power and control is distributed and counterbalanced (as to prevent unethical or harmful actions)

Founders [of startup businesses] benefit from checks and balances. … It makes the company more trustworthy, easier to finance, and less likely to implode. For those same reasons, checks and balances help employees.

—Noam Wasserman

Examples of checks and balances in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

In a competitive authoritarian system, a leader comes to power democratically and then erodes the system of checks and balances. —Frank Langfitt, NPR, 22 Apr. 2025

Trump, however, has numbed our senses with endless authoritarian actions that have ignored our Constitution’s checks and balances, weakened our freedoms and snubbed our judicial system. —Tom Zirpoli, Baltimore Sun, 22 Apr. 2025

First, the constitutional structure of separation of powers, checks and balances, has served the country well economically and also politically. —Bill Conerly, Forbes.com, 21 Apr. 2025

The drafters of the Constitution of the United States, one of the foundational documents of liberal democracy, drew on their personal experience with the British monarch to argue that executive power had to be tempered by checks and balances…or else. —Matthew Wills, JSTOR Daily, 20 Apr. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1777, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for checks and balances

• counterbalances
• imbalances

Kids Definition

checks and balances

plural noun

: a system that allows each branch of a government to amend or veto acts of another branch so as to prevent any one branch from having too much power

Legal Definition

checks and balances

noun plural

checks and bal·​anc·​es

-ˈba-lən-səz

: the powers (as judicial review, the presidential veto, and the congressional override) conferred on each of the three branches of government by which each restrains the others from exerting too much power see also separation of powers