Referendum

How to spell referendum

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce referendum

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does referendum mean?

1. nounA direct vote in which the whole electorate decides a single political question.

Referendum in a sentence

• The government promised a national referendum on the new constitution.

• Voters narrowly approved the change in last week's referendum.

Where does referendum come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes directly from Latin referendum, literally 'a thing that must be referred (back)', a neuter gerundive form of the verb referre, which combined re- 'back' with ferre 'to carry or bring'. So at root a referendum is something carried back to the people for their decision. Latin used the gerundive to express obligation or necessity, which is why the ending is -endum and not -ent; the spelling preserves that grammatical signal. English adopted the term in the nineteenth century, drawing on Swiss political practice where questions of law were literally referred back to the citizens for a direct vote. The same ferre root surfaces in a crowd of English relatives such as 'refer', 'transfer', 'infer' and 'conference', all involving the idea of carrying something somewhere. Because the original is Latin, the traditional plural is 'referenda', though 'referendums' is now widely accepted in English.

How the word is built

• re- (back)
• fer (carry, from Latin ferre)
• -end- (gerundive: that which is to be)
• -um (Latin neuter noun ending)