Junta (governing body)

{{Short description|Administrative institution in various periods in Spain and Latin America}}

{{Distinguish|military junta}}

Junta ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|h|ʊ|n|t|ə|audio=En-us-junta.ogg}} or {{IPAc-en|ˈ|dʒ|ʌ|n|t|ə}}) is a Spanish, Portuguese and Italian ({{Langx|it|giunta|label=none}}) term for a civil deliberative or administrative council. In English, the term, even when used alone, generally refers to a "military junta", the government of an authoritarian state run by high-ranking officers of a military. The literal meaning of the word derives from juntar (to join);{{cite dictionary| title=junta |dictionary=Diccionario de la lengua española|edition=Tricentenario | url=https://dle.rae.es/junta | language=es }} a group of people with a common purpose.

In Italy, a giunta is the civil executive of regions and of municipalities (comune). In Spain, the term refers to various historical and current governing institutions of a particular territory or occasion. In English, the now-obsolete term "junto", derived from the Spanish "junta", was used without authoritarian connotation, first attested from 1641; the Whig Junto was a political faction in early 18th-century Britain.{{Cite OED|junto}} The term is not related to the Sanskrit word Janatā (also transliterated as Jantā and Juntā), which refers to "the public/people/masses".{{fact|date=February 2023}}