Definitions

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun two of three equal parts of a divisible whole

Etymologies

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Examples

  • It allowed the body to invoke “cloture” to close off debate, but it set a high standard: It required a two-thirds supermajority of senators present and voting—generally sixty-seven votes.

    The Good Fight Walter F. Mondale 2010

  • Democrats picked up thirty-eight seats in Congress, so that in 1965 we convened holding a two-thirds majority in the House and a staggering margin of sixty-eight to thirty-two in the Senate.

    The Good Fight Walter F. Mondale 2010

  • The dangers for girls were especially acute: “It is estimated that two-thirds of the girls who appear before the Court charged with immorality owe their misfortune to influences derived directly from the movies, either from the pictures themselves or in the ‘picking up’ of male acquaintances at the theatre!”

    A Renegade History of the United States Thaddeus Russell 2010

  • Allen was demanding that this debate be conducted under Rule 22, so that we would need a two-thirds majority to silence him.

    The Good Fight Walter F. Mondale 2010

  • To Ross, these racially determined behaviors meant that “half, perhaps two-thirds, of our Italian immigrants are under America, not of it.”

    A Renegade History of the United States Thaddeus Russell 2010

  • Some two-thirds of the American soldiers who fought in the war did not volunteer; they were drafted, which alone indicates that the desire of Americans to fight was limited.

    A Renegade History of the United States Thaddeus Russell 2010

  • Any statute or ordinance can be revised or repealed by a majority of the appropriate legislative body, but amending the Constitution requires approval by two-thirds of both houses of Congress and then ratification by three-fourths of the states.

    The Conservative Assault on the Constitution Erwin Chemerinsky 2010

  • The evidence at trial showed that the 1978 Bronco is an unstable sport utility vehicle that Ford marketed for American families with a roof that is two-thirds plastic/one-third steel and has no roll bar.

    The Conservative Assault on the Constitution Erwin Chemerinsky 2010

  • As the Bronco rolled two and a half times, the two-thirds of the roof that was plastic broke off completely at the roof pillars and crashed into the occupant compartment; the front steel portion flattened to the dashboard.

    The Conservative Assault on the Constitution Erwin Chemerinsky 2010

  • He argued that the Senate had a right to debate our resolution once it became the business of the day and that, since standing rules required a two-thirds majority to end debate, he should be able to debate it until we mustered a two-thirds majority to stop him.

    The Good Fight Walter F. Mondale 2010

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