Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Complete in all respects; unlimited or full.
  • adjective Fully attended by all qualified members.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Full; entire; complete: as, a plenary license; plenary consent; plenary indulgence.
  • In law, noting an ordinary suit which passes through all its gradations and formal steps: opposed to summary.
  • Having full power; plenipotentiary.
  • noun In law, decisive procedure.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Full; entire; complete; absolute
  • adjective (R. C. Ch.) an entire remission of temporal punishment due to, or canonical penance for, all sins.
  • adjective (Theol.) See under Inspiration.
  • noun (Law), obsolete Decisive procedure.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Fully attended; for everyone's attendance.
  • adjective Complete; full; entire; absolute.
  • noun plenary session

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

  • adjective full in all respects

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Late Latin plēnārius, from Latin plēnus, full; see pelə- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Late Latin plēnārius, from plēnus ("full").

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Examples

  • Later usage has restricted the term plenary to those councils which are presided over by a delegate of the Apostolic See, who has received special power for that purpose, and which are attended by all the metropolitans and bishops of some commonwealth, empire, or kingdom, or by their duly accredited representatives.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 12: Philip II-Reuss 1840-1916 1913

  • ` ` This is not what you call a plenary meeting, but both sides are anxious to sign the deal as soon as possible, '' Clark said.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 1996

  • The Assembly voted in plenary to adopt a language scheme.

    Unbelievable! 2009

  • The Assembly voted in plenary in favour of adopting a statutory language scheme.

    Archive 2009-09-01 2009

  • The only people with any business to watch our politicians in plenary have computers and can observe unfolding events on Senedd TV.

    Archive 2009-09-01 2009

  • You'll probably remember the Commission's announcement during the Eisteddfod that English contributions in plenary won't be translated into Welsh in the official Record of Proceedings from now on.

    Archive 2009-09-01 2009

  • (EPP-ED) (UUP) Questions asked: 214 41 42 Motions Proposed 0 9 8 Reports drafted 0 1 2 Speeches in plenary 314 118 122 Written Declarations 3 0 4

    Sore tooth and things smofbabe 2009

  • The Assembly voted in plenary to adopt a language scheme.

    Archive 2009-09-01 2009

  • Speeches in plenary - this is potentially a bit misleading since the real arguments happen behind the scenes in the committee meetings, which although public events are not recorded with the same degree of completeness as the plenary sessions.

    Sore tooth and things smofbabe 2009

  • If that meant only translating contributions in plenary from Welsh into English there would be no need to note that the rules for committee meetings were different.

    Archive 2009-09-01 2009

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