Definition of senate

• n. - An assembly or council having the highest deliberative and legislative functions.
• n. - A body of elders appointed or elected from among the nobles of the nation, and having supreme legislative authority.
• n. - The upper and less numerous branch of a legislature in various countries, as in France, in the United States, in most of the separate States of the United States, and in some Swiss cantons.
• n. - In general, a legislative body; a state council; the legislative department of government.
• n. - The governing body of the Universities of Cambridge and London.
• n. - In some American colleges, a council of elected students, presided over by the president of the college, to which are referred cases of discipline and matters of general concern affecting the students.