plebiscite
n. countablen. a vote where everyone in a country or area is asked to say yes or no to a specific question. It is usually used to decide on a major change in the law or government.
n. a direct vote by the electorate on a specific proposal or constitutional amendment. Often used to legitimize a political decision or to determine the status of a territory.
The country held a plebiscite to decide on the new constitution.
After months of public debate, the government scheduled a national plebiscite to determine whether the border should be redrawn.
While the plebiscite was intended to settle the dispute once and for all, the narrow margin of victory only served to deepen the divisions within the local population.
Sense 1 (“referendum”) is borrowed from French plébiscite, from Latin plēbiscītum, plēbis scītum, plēbī scītum (“law of the common people or plebs”), from plēbis (the genitive singular of plēbs (“common people, plebeians”)) + scītum (“decree, ordinance, statute”). Sense 3 (“law enacted by the common people”) is a learned borrowing from Latin plēbiscītum: see above. It is attested earlier than English plebiscitum. Cognates * Italian plebiscito * Middle French plebiscite (modern French plébiscite) * Middle Low German plebiscīt (“ordinance”) * Spanish plebiscito, plebisçito (obsolete)