Dictionary Definition
Congress
Noun
1 the legislature of the United States government
[syn: United
States Congress, U.S.
Congress, US
Congress]
2 a meeting of elected or appointed
representatives
3 a national legislative assembly
4 the act of sexual procreation between a man and
a woman; the man's penis is inserted into the woman's vagina and
excited until orgasm and ejaculation occur [syn: sexual
intercourse, intercourse, sex act, copulation, coitus, coition, sexual
congress, sexual
relation, relation,
carnal
knowledge]
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Etymology
- From congressum, past participle of congredi, to go or come together; con- + gradi to go or step, gradus step.
Noun
- The collective body of senators and representatives of the people of a nation.
- A gathering or assembly; a conference.
Derived terms
Translations
The collective body of senators and
representatives of the people of a nation
- Croatian: kongres
- German: Kongress
- Icelandic: þing
- Kurdish:
A gathering or assembly; a conference
- Croatian: kongres
- Czech: kongres
- German: Kongress
- Kurdish:
Extensive Definition
In politics, a congress ("a
gathering of people")
is the name of the main legislative body in a
state that operates under
a congressional
system of government. In non-political usage congress is a term
applied to a large national or international grouping of people
meeting together with common interests or concerns, e.g. an
academic
conference.
Political congress
Legislative congress
Countries with Congresses and presidential
systems:
- The Congress of Mexico (Spanish: Congreso de la Unión) is the legislative branch of Mexican government.
- The Congress of the Argentine Nation (Spanish: Congreso de la Nación Argentina) is the legislative branch of the government of Argentina.
- The Congress of the Philippines (Filipino: Kongreso ng Pilipinas) is the legislative branch of the Philippine government.
- The Congress of the Republic of Peru (Spanish: Congreso de la República) is the unicameral legislature of Peru.
- The Congress of the United States is the bicameral legislative branch of the United States federal government.
- The National Congress of Bolivia is the national legislature of Bolivia.
- The National Congress of Brazil (Portuguese: Congresso Nacional) is Brazil's legislature.
- The National Congress of Chile (Spanish: Congreso Nacional) is the legislative branch of the government of Chile.
- The National Congress of Ecuador is the unicameral legislature of Ecuador.
- The Congress of Guatemala (Spanish: Congreso de la República) is the unicameral legislature of Guatemala.
- The Congress of Honduras (Spanish: Congreso Macional) is the legislative branch of the government of Honduras.
- The Congress of Paraguay is the bicameral legislature of Paraguay.
- The Congress of the Dominican Republic is the bicameral legislature of the Dominican Republic.
- The Congress of the Federated States of Micronesia is the unicameral legislature of the Federated States of Micronesia.
Other countries with Congresses:
- The legislature of the People's Republic of China is known in English as the National People's Congress. The PRC is nevertheless not a congressional system.
- In France, the congrès is a formal and exceptional joint meeting of both houses of Parliament in order to ratify an amendment to the Constitution.
- Spanish Congress of Deputies (Spanish: Congreso de los Diputados), the lower house of the Cortes Generales, Spain's legislative branch
Political party and organizations
Congress is included in the name of several political parties, especially those in former British colonies:- The African National Congress of South Africa
- The All Ceylon Tamil Congress of Sri Lanka
- The All People's Congress of Sierra Leone
- The Basotho Congress Party of Lesotho
- The Congress of Democrats of Namibia
- The Indian National Congress of India
- The Lesotho Congress for Democracy of Lesotho
- The Lesotho Peoples' Congress of Lesotho
- The Malawi Congress Party of Malawi
- The Malaysian Indian Congress of Malaysia
- The National Congress of American Indians
- The National Congress of Fiji
- The National Congress (Sudan)
- The National Congress of the Canaries
- The Nationalist Congress Party of India
- The Nationalist Trinamool Congress of India
- The Nepali Congress of Nepal
- The Ngwane National Liberatory Congress of Swaziland
- The Pan-Africanist Congress of South Africa
- The People's National Congress of Guyana
- The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress of Sri Lanka
- The Tamil Maanila Congress of India
- The Ugandan People's Congress of Uganda
- The United National Congress of Trinidad and Tobago
Political gatherings
Congress has also been used to describe certain historical gatherings, such as- The Congress of Berlin (1877-78), reorganizing conditions in the Balkans,
- The Congress of Gniezno (1000)
- The Congress of Panama was an 1826 meeting of representatives from several Latin American republics organized by Simon Bolivar in an attempt to promote Pan-American unity.
- The Congress of Tucumán (1816)
- The Congress of Vienna (1815), reorganizing Europe after the Napoleon wars,
- The National Congress of Belgium was a temporarly legislative assembly in 1830, formed to create a constitution for the new state.
It has been used for meetings of
independence-minded nationalists or revolutionaries:
- The African National Congress
- The Indian National Congress
- The Iraqi National Congress
- The United States Continental Congress
(Note, the political parties mentioned above also
began as groups of this type).
Congress is also part of the name of certain
international bodies, such as
Party congress
Many political parties also have a Party Congress which is held every few years to make decisions for the party and elected governing bodies. These are sometimes called political conventions.Non-political congress
Scientific congress
Congress is an alternative name for a large
national or international academic
conference. See the International Congress of Media by the
Research Institute of Applied Communication (organizer: Synedros
www.synedros.com)Small Text
Chess congress
A Chess congress is a chess tournament, in one city, where a large number of contestants gather to play competitive chess over a limited period of time; typically one day to one week.- Congress, a ship caught in a storm at St Ives, Cornwall in 1909.
See also
congress in Asturian: Congresu
congress in Catalan: Congrés
congress in Danish: Kongres
congress in German: Kongress
congress in Estonian: Kongress
congress in Spanish: Congreso
congress in French: Congrès
congress in Galician: Congreso
congress in Gujarati: કોંગ્રેસ
congress in Indonesian: Kongres
congress in Italian: Congresso
congress in Dutch: Congres
congress in Norwegian: Kongress
congress in Portuguese: Congresso
congress in Russian: Конгресс
congress in Simple English: Congress
congress in Slovak: Kongres
congress in Finnish: Kongressi
congress in Swedish: Congreso Nacional
congress in Tagalog: Kongreso
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
Australia, Austria, Barbados, Belgium, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Canada, Colombia, Cyprus, Dominican Republic,
Ecuador, El Salvador,
Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Fiji, France, Gabon, Gambia, Guinea, Guyana, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Laos, Lebanon, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Nauru, Netherlands, New Zealand,
North Vietnam, Norway,
Pakistan, Parliament, Republic of
China, Rhodesia,
Rwanda, Senegal, Singapore, South Africa, South
Korea, Spain, Swaziland, Switzerland, Syria, Tanzania, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago,
Tunisia, Turkey, US, Uganda, United Kingdom, Upper
Volta, Venezuela, West
Germany, ZambiaBritish
Cabinet, ESP, Sanhedrin, US Cabinet, act of
love, adultery,
advisory body, answer,
aphrodisia, approach, ass, assemble, assemblee, assembly, assignation, association, asymptote, at home, audience, ball, balling, bargaining, bargaining
session, bench, bicameral
legislature, board, board
of aldermen, body of advisers, borough council, bottleneck, brain trust,
brawl, brotherhood, cabinet, camarilla, carnal knowledge,
caucus, chamber, chamber of deputies,
city board, city council, climax, club, cohabitation, coition, coitus, coitus interruptus,
collect, collegiality, collision
course, colloquium,
commerce, commission, committee, common council,
communication,
communion, community, concentralization,
concentration,
conclave, concourse, concurrence, confab, confabulation, conference, confluence, conflux, confrontation, congregate, congregation, connection, consultation, consultative
assembly, contact,
conventicle,
convention, convergence, converging, conversation, converse, convocation, copula, copulation, correspondence, council, council fire, council
of ministers, council of state, council of war, county council,
coupling, court, crossing, dance, date, dealing, dealings, deliberative
assembly, diddling,
diet, directory, discussion, divan, eisteddfod, exchange, exchange of views,
eyeball-to-eyeball encounter, federal assembly, fellowship, festivity, fete, focalization, focus, forgather, forgathering, fornication, forum, fraternity, funnel, gathering, general assembly,
get-together, guild,
high-level talk, house of assembly, housewarming, hub, huddle, information, interaction, interchange, interchange of
views, intercommunication,
intercommunion,
intercourse,
interplay, interview, intimacy, junta, kitchen cabinet, league, legislative assembly,
legislative body, legislative chamber, legislature, levee, linguistic intercourse,
lovemaking, lower
chamber, lower house, making it with, marital relations, marriage
act, mating, meat, meet, meeting, message, muster, mutual approach,
narrowing gap, national assembly, negotiations, news
conference, onanism,
order, orgasm, ovum, palaver, panel, pareunia, parish council,
parley, parliament, party, plenum, pourparler, powwow, press conference, privy
council, procreation, prom, provincial legislature,
provincial parliament, quorum, radius, raise, rally, reception, relations, rendezvous, reply, representative town
meeting, response,
screwing, seance, session, sex, sex act, sexual climax, sexual
commerce, sexual congress, sexual intercourse, sexual relations,
sexual union, shindig,
sit-in, sitting,
sleeping with, social activity, social intercourse, social
relations, society,
soiree, soviet, speaking, speech, speech circuit, speech
situation, sperm, spokes, staff, state assembly, state
legislature, summit,
summit conference, summitry, symposium, syndicate, synod, talking, tangent, telepathy, touch, town meeting, traffic, tribunal, truck, turnout, two-way communication,
unicameral legislature, union, upper chamber, upper house,
venery