Tell me more ×
English Language & Usage Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for linguists, etymologists, and serious English language enthusiasts. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote -1 down vote favorite

There is a sentence:

It now has a small presence in parliament, after a landslide win in by-elections deemed generally free and fair in April.

What does a phrase landslide win mean here? Thank you.

share|improve this question
2  
This kind of question can easily be answered by a little bit of research. Just look up "landslide" in any reasonable dictionary. There are dozens online. – Bill Franke Nov 19 '12 at 9:05
You might be interested in our sister site for English language learners. Please support it. Thank you. – RegDwighт♦ Nov 19 '12 at 11:07

closed as general reference by MετάEd, Carlo_R., Barrie England, Roaring Fish, J.R. Nov 19 '12 at 10:08

This question is too basic; it can be definitively and permanently answered by a single link to a standard internet reference source designed specifically to find that type of information. See the FAQ for guidance on how to improve it.

2 Answers

up vote 1 down vote

It's just landslide not landslide win. And it means the majority of votes for one party in an election. Here is a description from NOAD:

2 an overwhelming majority of votes for one party in an election: winning the election by a landslide | [ as modifier ] : a landslide victory.

share|improve this answer
Obama "won by a landslide" in the Electoral College but by only a slim majority in the popular vote. The little word "overwhelming" means "at least a 60-40" (3:2) victory, not a mere 50.1-49.9% victory, which is a "simple majority". – Bill Franke Nov 19 '12 at 9:03
up vote 1 down vote

Landside is not really used to describe by-elections, which have very little, if any effect on who's in power. It would be used about, for example, general elections. In these instances it would refer to a state of affairs where one party had a majority of MP's, forming the government of the UK before the election and another party overturns this by getting a massive number of MP's elected and forming the government after the election.

A case in point occurred in 1997: before the general election the Conservatives had 343 MP's to Labour's 274; after it the Conservatives had only a rump of 165 MP's remaining while Labour had an overwhelming 418.

It would not be used in circumstances where one party had, say, a small majority of MP's prior to an election and a huge majority of them afterwards. Just as an actual landslide changes the physical landscape, an election landslide changes the political landscape.

share|improve this answer
I don't know is this is US vs UK, but here in the US, if a party had a big majority before the election and won re-election by a large margin, we would call that a landslide even though the end result is that nothing has changed. – Jay Nov 19 '12 at 16:54

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.