Word.ws English Dictionary

Washminster

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Australia/ˈwɒʃmɪnstə/

Washminster proper noun: a political system that has elements of both the Westminster system and the United States' political system ("Washington").

Proper noun

Washminster

  1. A political system that has elements of both the Westminster system and the United States' political system ("Washington").
    • Having read Graham Maddox I can no longer complacently describe the Australian system as a Washminster mutation, nor as a successful system of representative democracy government, as I have in the past.2005, A Passion for Politics: Essays in Honour of Graham Maddox
    • This has caused speculation that New Zealand is moving from a classic Westminster parliamentary system to a more parliamentary-congressional 'Washminster' hybrid.2007, Stephen I. Levine, Nigel S. Roberts, The Baubles of Office: The New Zealand General Election of 2005

Origin of Washminster

Blend of Washington + Westminster. Coined by political scientist Elaine Thompson in 1980.

Questions about Washminster

What does Washminster mean?
Washminster means a political system that has elements of both the Westminster system and the United States' political system ("Washington").
What part of speech is Washminster?
Washminster is a proper noun.
How do you pronounce Washminster?
Washminster is pronounced /ˈwɒʃmɪnstə/ (Australia).

Words near Washminster in the dictionary

  1. washloads
  2. washmaid
  3. washmaids
  4. washman
  5. washmen
  6. Washminster
  7. washnut
  8. Washo
  9. Washoan
  10. Washoe
  11. Washoe County

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Washminster (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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Cite this entry: “Washminster.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/washminster. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.