What is "term limit"

n. 1 A legal restriction that limits the number of terms a person may serve in a particular elected office. 2 The maximum number of terms one may legally serve in a particular elected office. vb. (context transitive informal English) (alternative spelling of term-limit English)

A term limit is a legal restriction that limits the number of terms an officeholder may serve in a particular elected office. When term limits are found in presidential and semi-presidential systems they act as a method to curb the potential for monopoly, where a leader effectively becomes " president for life". This is intended to protect a democracy from becoming a de facto dictatorship. Sometimes, there is an absolute limit on the number of terms an officeholder can serve, while, in other cases, the restrictions are merely on the number of consecutive terms.