Word.ws English Dictionary

personal union

personal union noun: the situation of two or more states sharing the same monarch, usually also with shared dynastic succession.

Noun

personal union (countable and uncountable, plural personal unions)

  1. (historical) The situation of two or more states sharing the same monarch, usually also with shared dynastic succession.
    • The United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway, also known variously as the United Kingdoms, Sweden and Norway or Sweden–Norway, was a personal union of the separate kingdoms of Sweden and Norway under a common monarch and common foreign policy that lasted from 1814 until its peaceful dissolution in 1905.
    • Many personal unions were ended by differences in the monarchies' rules of dynastic succession, while disputes thereabout lead to dynastic wars.
    Synonyms:
    composite monarchy, composite state
  2. (Christian) Hypostatic union; the union of Christ's humanity and divinity in one individual existence (person).

Examples of personal union in a sentence

  • The Congo Free State was an independent kingdom in central Africa in personal union with Belgium under King Leopold.
  • Personal unions were scarcely new in British history.2004, Jeremy Black, The Hanoverians, Hambledon and London, page 22:

Synonyms of personal union

Forms of personal union

pluralpersonal unions

Origin of personal union

In the political sense, calque of German persönliche Vereinigung (attributed to German jurist Johann Stephan Pütter, 1777).

Questions about personal union

What does personal union mean?
Personal union means the situation of two or more states sharing the same monarch, usually also with shared dynastic succession.
How do you use personal union in a sentence?
The Congo Free State was an independent kingdom in central Africa in personal union with Belgium under King Leopold.
What part of speech is personal union?
Personal union is a noun.
What is the plural of personal union?
The plural of personal union is personal unions.

Words near personal union in the dictionary

  1. personal transactions
  2. personal transporter
  3. personal transporters
  4. personal unblocking key
  5. personal unblocking keys
  6. personal union
  7. personal unions
  8. personal video recorder
  9. personal video recorders
  10. personal water craft
  11. personal water crafts

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: personal union (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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