State

English Meaning

The circumstances or condition of a being or thing at any given time.

1. A condition or mode of being, as with regard to circumstances: a state of confusion.
2. A condition of being in a stage or form, as of structure, growth, or development: the fetal state.
3. A mental or emotional condition: in a manic state.
4. Informal A condition of excitement or distress.
5. Physics The condition of a physical system with regard to phase, form, composition, or structure: Ice is the solid state of water.
6. Social position or rank.
7. Ceremony; pomp: foreign leaders dining in state at the White House.
8. The supreme public power within a sovereign political entity.
9. The sphere of supreme civil power within a given polity: matters of state.
10. A specific mode of government: the socialist state.
11. A body politic, especially one constituting a nation: the states of Eastern Europe.
12. 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.
13. 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.
14. Owned and operated by a state: state universities.
15. To set forth in words; declare.