states


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Related to states: status

state

 (stāt)
n.
1.
a. A condition or mode of being, as with regard to circumstances: The office was in a state of confusion.
b. A condition of being in a stage or form, as of structure, growth, or development: the fetal state.
c. A mental or emotional condition: in a manic state.
d. Informal A condition of excitement or distress: was in a state over going to the prom.
e. Social position or rank.
2. Physics The condition of a physical system with regard to phase, form, composition, or structure: Ice is the solid state of water.
3. Ceremony; pomp: foreign leaders dining in state at the White House.
4.
a. The supreme public power within a sovereign political entity: the state intervening in the economy.
b. The sphere of supreme civil power within a given polity: matters of state.
c. A specific kind of government: the socialist state.
d. A body politic, especially one constituting a nation: the states of Eastern Europe.
e. One of the more or less internally autonomous territorial and political units composing a federation under a sovereign government: the 48 contiguous states of the Union.
adj.
1. Of or relating to a body politic or to an internally autonomous territorial or political unit constituting a federation under one government: a monarch dealing with state matters; the department that handles state security.
2. Owned and operated by a state: state universities.
tr.v. stat·ed, stat·ing, states
To set forth in words; declare.

[Middle English, from Old French estat, from Latin status; see stā- in Indo-European roots.]

stat′a·ble, state′a·ble adj.
Synonyms: state, condition, situation, status
These nouns denote the mode of being or form of existence of a person or thing: an old factory in a state of disrepair; a jogger in healthy condition; a police officer responding to a dangerous situation; the uncertain status of the peace negotiations.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

States

(steɪts)
n
(Government, Politics & Diplomacy) the States (functioning as singular or plural) an informal name for United States of America
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

states

  • nation, country - A nation is made up of states—and a country is a nation defined geographically.
  • political map - Shows the boundaries of cities, states, and countries.
  • statistic - Comes from a German noun describing knowledge dealing with the constitutions and resources of the states of the world.
  • booster name - A nickname for a state (as on a license plate).
Farlex Trivia Dictionary. © 2012 Farlex, Inc. All rights reserved.
Translations

States

[ˈsteɪts] npl
the States (= the US) → les États-Unis mplState's attorney n (US)procureur(e) m/fstate school nécole f publiquestate secret nsecret m d'État
Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

States

[steɪts] npl the States (USA) → gli Stati mpl Uniti
Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995
References in classic literature ?
We the people of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.
The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislature.
The Same Subject Continued (Concerning Dangers from Dissensions Between the States) For the Independent Journal.
IT IS sometimes asked, with an air of seeming triumph, what inducements could the States have, if disunited, to make war upon each other?
We have a vast tract of unsettled territory within the boundaries of the United States. There still are discordant and undecided claims between several of them, and the dissolution of the Union would lay a foundation for similar claims between them all.
chap, v., though as a criticism it is curiously inept, reveals his own attitude admirably: "Let us remember that we should not disregard the experience of ages; in the multitude of years, these things, if they were good, would certainly not have been unknown; for almost everything has been found out, although sometimes they are not put together; in other cases men do not use the knowledge which they have." Aristotle in his Constitutions had made a study of one hundred and fifty-eight constitutions of the states of his day, and the fruits of that study are seen in the continual reference to concrete political experience, which makes the Politics in some respects a critical history of the workings of the institutions of the Greek city state.
The large nation states to which we are accustomed make it difficult for us to think that the state could be constructed and modelled to express the good life.
Were an answer to this question to be sought, not by recurring to principles, but in the application of the term by political writers, to the constitution of different States, no satisfactory one would ever be found.
It is SUFFICIENT for such a government that the persons administering it be appointed, either directly or indirectly, by the people; and that they hold their appointments by either of the tenures just specified; otherwise every government in the United States, as well as every other popular government that has been or can be well organized or well executed, would be degraded from the republican character.
It is of high importance to the peace of America that she observe the laws of nations towards all these powers, and to me it appears evident that this will be more perfectly and punctually done by one national government than it could be either by thirteen separate States or by three or four distinct confederacies.
Because when once an efficient national government is established, the best men in the country will not only consent to serve, but also will generally be appointed to manage it; for, although town or country, or other contracted influence, may place men in State assemblies, or senates, or courts of justice, or executive departments, yet more general and extensive reputation for talents and other qualifications will be necessary to recommend men to offices under the national government, -- especially as it will have the widest field for choice, and never experience that want of proper persons which is not uncommon in some of the States.