[pahr-luh-muh
nt or, sometimes, pahrl-yuh-] 
| 1. | (usually initial capital letter) the legislature of Great Britain, historically the assembly of the three estates, now composed of Lords Spiritual and Lords Temporal, forming together the House of Lords, and representatives of the counties, cities, boroughs, and universities, forming the House of Commons. |
| 2. | (usually initial capital letter) the legislature of certain British colonies and possessions. |
| 3. | a legislative body in any of various other countries. |
| 4. | French History. any of several high courts of justice in France before 1789. |
| 5. | a meeting or assembly for conference on public or national affairs. |
| 6. | Cards. fan-tan (def. 1). |
[fan-tan] | 1. | Also, fan tan. Also called parliament, sevens. Cards. a game in which the players play their sevens and other cards forming sequences in the same suits as their sevens, the winner being the player who first runs out of cards. |
| 2. | a Chinese gambling game in which a pile of coins, counters, or objects is placed under a bowl and bets are made on what the remainder will be after they have been counted off in fours. |
| par·lia·ment (pär'lə-mənt) n.
[Middle English, a meeting about national concerns, from Old French parlement, from parler, to talk; see parley.] |
An assembly of representatives, usually of an entire nation, that makes laws. Parliaments began in the Middle Ages in struggles for power between kings and their people. Today, parliaments differ from other kinds of legislatures in one important way: some of the representatives in the parliament serve as government ministers, in charge of carrying out the laws that the parliament passes. Generally, a parliament is divided by political parties, and the representative who leads the strongest political party in the parliament becomes the nation's head of government. This leader is usually called the prime minister or premier. Typically, a different person — usually a king, queen, or president — is head of state, and this person's duties are usually more ceremonial than governmental.
Note: The number of nations governed by parliaments has greatly increased in modern times.
