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Definition of supermajority
: a majority (such as two-thirds or three-fifths) greater than a simple majority
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Recent Examples of supermajority from the Web
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But to quash such disputes for good Jerry Brown, California’s governor, needed to convince a supermajority of legislators (two-thirds) to extend cap-and-trade to 2030.
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Thursday marked the end of this chapter when the House eked out the supermajority needed to override the veto, a day in Springfield that included a two-hour emergency lockdown.
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Now imagine that 270 million Americans believed that and, having the necessary supermajority to pull it off, voted away our Constitution.
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Normally, a supermajority of 60 votes is required to end debate in the Senate and move on to a vote; otherwise, one opponent of a measure can talk a bill to death, the process known as a filibuster.
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In Kansas, the exact same strategy has incurred so much debt that a supermajority of the legislature, led by Republicans, have junked it.
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That pledge was hardly unique among Republicans last year who swept to historic gains and seized a supermajority in the Kentucky House.
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Democrats need one Republican vote in both the House and Senate to achieve a supermajority.
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Reconciliation is an unusual tactic — generally reserved for budget and tax policy — that gets around Senate rules designed to force a supermajority on bills.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'supermajority.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
First Known Use of supermajority
1977
Law Dictionary
supermajority
play
noun
su·per·ma·jor·i·ty
\ˈsü-pər-mə-ˌjȯr-ə-tē\
Legal Definition of supermajority
: a large majority a provision requiring a supermajority vote — say, 80 % of the common shares instead of the usual bare majority rule — R. C. Clark
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