Definition of "charter" []

• A document issued by a sovereign, legislature, or other authority, creating a public or private corporation, such as a city, college, or bank, and defining its privileges and purposes. (noun)
• A written grant from the sovereign power of a country conferring certain rights and privileges on a person, a corporation, or the people: A royal charter exempted the Massachusetts colony from direct interference by the Crown. (noun)
• A document outlining the principles, functions, and organization of a corporate body; a constitution: the city charter. (noun)
• An authorization from a central organization to establish a local branch or chapter. (noun)
• Special privilege or immunity. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The Associated Merchants Mutual Insurance Company, Associated a corporation whose charter expired August ninth, nine - Muuiafinsur - teen hundred and twenty, by virtue of section thirty-one of charter°?"
• "The trend has become so big that Edmonton, for example, has 31 alternative schools as well as independent non-profits that operate under the term "charter school" through an agreement with the provincial government."
• "Just the word charter or private does not mean the school is a success."