Parliament means the main law‑making body in a country, especially in political systems like the United Kingdom and many other democracies.

Quick Scoop: What “parliament” means

  • At its core, parliament is a legislature – the group of representatives who make or change laws for a state.
  • It usually has three big jobs: representing the people, making laws, and checking that the government is doing its job properly.
  • In countries like the UK, “Parliament” (with a capital P) specifically means the national legislature made up of different parts (for example, the House of Commons and the House of Lords in the UK).
  • The word comes from the French verb parler (“to speak”), because it’s where members come together to speak, debate, and decide on public issues.

In very simple terms: parliament is where a country’s elected (or appointed) representatives meet to talk, argue, and agree on the rules everyone has to live by.

A tiny story to lock it in

Imagine your whole country as a giant school.
You can’t have every student in the auditorium arguing about every rule at once, so each class elects a few people to go to a big student council. That council:

  1. Talks about problems in the school.
  2. Decides new rules or changes old ones.
  3. Makes sure the head teacher is running things fairly.

That big council is like a parliament for the country – a place where a smaller group speaks and decides on behalf of everyone.

TL;DR: Parliament is the main national body where representatives meet to discuss public affairs, make laws, and oversee the government.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.