MEANING
Involving several parties, especially states, acting or negotiating together.
Use it for
international coordination; shared negotiations; collective institutionsSpecify the parties and how participation shapes a decision.
Words that belong together
- multilateral agreement
- multilateral cooperation
- multilateral institution
On the page
The states signed a multilateral agreement on access to shipping data.
Multilateral negotiations stalled over the distribution of inspection costs.
A regional institution can be multilateral without including every state in the region.
Nearby words
Opposite meanings
Related words
Word forms
- Base
- multilateral
Usage notes
Primary category: academic. Common in international relations. Several participants do not guarantee equal influence, consensus, or universal membership. Contrast with bilateral and unilateral. Normally non-gradable in this sense; comparison requires a specific contextual scale. Derived family (not inflections): multilateralism, multilaterally.
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