noun · countable / uncountable · common

personal union

personal union · personal unions

The situation of two or more states sharing the same monarch, usually also with shared…The situation of two or more states sharing the same monarch, usually also with shared dynastic succession.

Meaning

2 senses

(countable, historical, uncountable)The situation of two or more states sharing the same monarch, usually also with shared dynastic succession.
Many personal unions were ended by differences in the monarchies' rules of dynastic succession, while disputes thereabout lead to dynastic wars.
The Congo Free State was an independent kingdom in central Africa in personal union with Belgium under King Leopold.
(Christian, countable, uncountable)Hypostatic union; the union of Christ's humanity and divinity in one individual existence (person).

Translations

4 languages

Origin

In the political sense, calque of German persönliche Vereinigung (attributed to German jur

In the political sense, calque of German persönliche Vereinigung (attributed to German jurist Johann Stephan Pütter, 1777).

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Forms

plural: personal unions

Singular	personal union
Plural	personal unions

regular

Synonyms

3 synonyms

union of states under the same monarch:composite monarchycomposite state

union of Christ's human and divine natures in one person:hypostatic union

Lessons for this word

1 lessons

A1Countable and uncountable nouns — Because it can be uncountable