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Politics & Government vocabulary · Elections and Voting

Landslide

Meaning in politics & government, with examples

/ˈlændslaɪd/nounCommon term

In politics & government, landslide means: An election victory in which one candidate or party wins a very large number of votes or seats, far more than its rivals.

In Turkish: ezici zafer, açık ara galibiyet

How it is used

Common in news headlines: win by a landslide, a landslide victory. Its literal meaning is a mass of earth and rock sliding down a hill, and the political use comes from this image of something overwhelming.

Example sentences

  1. The party won by a landslide, taking almost two-thirds of the seats.

  2. Few analysts predicted such a landslide.

Common collocations

  • win by a landslide
  • landslide victory
  • landslide win
  • electoral landslide
  • majorityThe larger part of a group, especially more than half of the seats in parliament or of the votes cast; also the number by which the winner is ahead of the others.
  • electionAn organized process in which people vote to choose a person or group for an official position, such as members of parliament, a president or a mayor.
  • mandateThe authority to govern or to carry out a programme that voters are seen to give a party or leader by electing them; also the period this authority lasts.
  • turnoutThe number or percentage of eligible people who actually vote in an election or referendum.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Elections and Voting

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