what does bicameral mean?

Answer 1

There are two legislative bodies, opposed to unicameral. In the US, and in other countries, there are two bodies that makes laws, i.e., House of Representative and the Senate. They Senate generally exists solely for the purpose of scrutinizing and possibly vetoing the decisions of the House.

Answer 2

"Two Chambers".
There is an "Upper House" and a "Lower House". The Prime Minister or Chancellor or Premier, often, is the person able to form a controlling bloc in the "Lower House" - which usually is the more powerful of the two.
But all legislation must be passed by the Upper House before going to the President/Monarch for their signature and then taking effect. This gives checks and balances not available in a uni-cameral legislature.
Often the upper house spots a flaw in the legislation and sends it back or amends it itself.
Where the lower chamber is the real power, tho, the upper one is often limited in what it can alter on its own and for how long or how often it can delay/veto legislation from the lower chamber.
Where there are party systems, you can get problems with one controlling one house, another, or a coalition, controlling the other. Where the President/Monarch has real power, as well, there can be real problems if s/he's one political viewpoint and one or both houses are controlled by an opposing viewpoint.
How each chamber is elected/appointed varies, too. Sometimes - as in USA - the upper chamber is limited to a set number of members, 'weighted' to give some desirable outcome (in USA - equal numbers from every State, no matter how large or small).
The members of the lower chamber are usually elected on some constituency basis - representing a "Seat" where the boundaries are drawn to make each electorate approximately represent the same number of electors.

Answer 3

Bicameral
Composed of or based on two legislative chambers or branches: a bicameral legislature.
Medicine. Composed of or having two chambers, as an abscess divided by a septum.

Please in the future look at past questions as this has been asked before ^-^ Thanks. Also google is a good resource for dictionaries.

Answer 4

All the other answers are correct. I'll just add that only Nebraska has a unicameral legislature of just one "house", i.e. one elected body. It's been unicameral since 1934. Originally there were 3 unicameral states, but that system did not last very long. Georgia, Pennsylvania and Vermont were briefly unicameral.

Answer 5

Ro! is right. 2 houses - like a House of Representatives and a Senate.

Answer 6

A legislature composed of two houses

Answer 7

two chambers in the legislature, e.g, House and Senate. Nebraska, I think, is unicameral (one).

Answer 8

Specifically it means "two rooms" (bi = two, camera = room). It refers to a legislature with two houses.