Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

superminority

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English

Syllables: su-per-mi-nor-i-ty
IPA

20

Scrabble Score

13

Letters

6

Syllables

11

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

A voting block which, although it has less than 50% of the vote, has sufficient numbers to prevent any other group from forming a supermajority.

noun

A minority group that wields disproportionate power.

noun

An ethnic minority group that is seen as having outstanding abilities.

noun

A member of a minority group who has extraordinary abilities, often one who is identified as a leader and representative of the entire ethnic group.

noun

A large minority group that comprises a significant percentage of the population or most of the minority population.

noun

Multiple minority groups, seen as a single coalition or group.

noun

A person who is a member of multiple minority groups.

Example Sentences

"A President and a “superminority" of Congress—41 percent of one house—in the exercise of the constitutional mandate to “ensure” that outlays do not exceed receipts, might kill or maim any program they did not like—social security, environmental, defense—so long as the President could hold the support of 41 percent of the members of one house of Congress."
"Under this approach, a superminority of 34 Senators could prevent a sole executive agreement from enjoying the full force of the supremacy clause vis-a-vis state laws."
"When the votes were counted, the superminority resolution revoking the pledge took 37 percent, but backers of the pledge also failed to win a majority, so the UAW found itself with no formal position on the crucial issue."
"What my colleagues need to understand is that we are setting up, not a powerful supermajority, what we are doing is setting up a powerful superminority which will control the process."
"This is an escalating process until we have a highly privileged superminority with a vested interest in increasing its numbers and its power. At that point the people have become servants of the bureaucracy, rather than the bureaucracy being a service function of the government, working for the citizenry."
"State governors clamor for state control. They fear local control could generate a hodge—podge of conflicting rules and that a state's solid waste policy could be dictated by a "superminority" of activists in a given county."

Etymology

From super + minority, variously involving super-'s separate meanings of "above", "more than", "excellent", or "powerful".

Inflected Forms

superminorities (plural)

Frequently Paired Words

qualified minority plurality relative majority simple majority absolute majority qualified majority supermajority

Questions

What does superminority mean?: A voting block which, although it has less than 50% of the vote, has sufficient numbers to prevent any other group from forming a supermajority.
Where does superminority come from?: From super + minority, variously involving super-'s separate meanings of "above", "more than", "excellent", or "powerful".

How to pronounce superminority

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