legislation

legislation — noun

1. a written rule or set of rules that a government has formally approved and that

1.nounB2
Definition

a written rule or set of rules that a government has formally approved and that people in a country are required to obey

Example

New data privacy legislation requires companies to get permission before collecting personal information from users.

collocation: new + legislation on a topic

Under recent environmental legislation, factories must cut carbon emissions by twenty percent by next year.

preposition: under + legislation (indicating authority)

Common collocations
  • pass legislation
  • introduce legislation
  • propose legislation
  • tough legislation
  • new legislation
  • existing legislation
  • environmental legislation
  • under legislation
  • a piece of legislation
  • draft legislation
Synonyms
  • law

    the most general term; legislation suggests formal, often multi-part, written rules

  • regulation

    more specific — rules made by an authority to control how something operates

  • statute

    formal term for a written law passed by a legislative body; less common in everyday language

  • act

    refers to a single piece of legislation passed by a parliament

Common Mistakes

Several new legislations were passed last month.
Several new pieces of legislation were passed last month.
Legislation is uncountable; use 'pieces of legislation' or rephrase to 'several new laws'.

2. the entire activity of creating new laws, which includes suggesting ideas, discu

2.nounB2
Definition

the entire activity of creating new laws, which includes suggesting ideas, discussing them, and finally giving them official approval

Example

Legislation is often a slow process because each proposed law needs review by several committees.

uncountable as process: 'Legislation is...'

The senator has spent most of her career involved in legislation on education reform.

collocation: involved in legislation on [topic]

Common collocations
  • the process of legislation
  • involved in legislation
  • during legislation
  • through legislation
  • by legislation
  • participate in legislation
  • a period of legislation
Synonyms
  • lawmaking

    more informal and direct; interchangeable in many contexts

  • governance

    broader term covering all aspects of running a country, not just making laws

  • law reform

    narrower — specifically about improving or changing existing laws

Antonyms
  • abolition

    the act of officially ending a law or system, the opposite of creating one

Usage Note

Only sense that refers to the activity rather than the resulting written rules. Unlike sense 1 (LAWS AND RULES), this sense cannot be described with 'a piece of' or modified with adjectives such as 'tough' or 'new'.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Law is the broadest word — it covers any rule that a society follows, whether written or unwritten. Legislation refers specifically to written rules that a government has formally approved through its law-making process. A regulation is more detailed: it is a rule made by an executive authority (not by parliament) telling people how to follow a law. A statute is a formal, written law passed by a legislative body such as a parliament. An act is the same as a statute but is the term commonly used when discussing a single piece of legislation. For example, the UK's 'Data Protection Act 2018' is a piece of legislation (a statute), but the detailed rules on how companies must store data are set out in regulations made by the Information Commissioner's Office.

law ↗regulation ↗statute ↗act ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

  • legislation process
  • legislation committee
  • legislation package

Phrases

  • a piece of legislation
  • poverty of legislation

Prepositions

  • on legislation
  • under legislation
  • through legislation
  • by legislation

Etymology

LatinFrenchEnglish

The word comes from late Latin 'legislatio', which combines 'lex' (meaning law) and 'latio' (meaning the act of carrying or proposing). It entered English through French 'législation' in the mid-1600s. The original idea is literally 'the bringing forward of law' — a fitting image for a word about creating new legal rules.