state

[steyt] /steɪt/
noun
1.
the condition of a person or thing, as with respect to circumstances or attributes:
a state of health.
2.
the condition of matter with respect to structure, form, constitution, phase, or the like:
water in a gaseous state.
3.
status, rank, or position in life; station:
He dresses in a manner befitting his state.
4.
the style of living befitting a person of wealth and high rank:
to travel in state.
5.
a particular condition of mind or feeling:
to be in an excited state.
6.
an abnormally tense, nervous, or perturbed condition:
He's been in a state since hearing about his brother's death.
7.
a politically unified people occupying a definite territory; nation.
8.
the territory, or one of the territories, of a government.
9.
(sometimes initial capital letter) any of the bodies politic which together make up a federal union, as in the United States of America.
10.
the body politic as organized for civil rule and government (distinguished from church).
11.
the operations or activities of a central civil government:
affairs of state.
12.
(initial capital letter). Also called State Department. Informal. the Department of State.
13.
Printing. a set of copies of an edition of a publication which differ from others of the same printing because of additions, corrections, or transpositions made during printing or at any time before publication.
14.
the States, Informal. the United States (usually used outside its borders):
After a year's study in Spain, he returned to the States.
adjective
15.
of or pertaining to the central civil government or authority.
16.
made, maintained, or chartered by or under the authority of one of the commonwealths that make up a federal union:
a state highway; a state bank.
17.
characterized by, attended with, or involving ceremony:
a state dinner.
18.
used on or reserved for occasions of ceremony.
verb (used with object), stated, stating.
19.
to declare definitely or specifically:
She stated her position on the case.
20.
to set forth formally in speech or writing:
to state a hypothesis.
21.
to set forth in proper or definite form:
to state a problem.
22.
to say.
23.
to fix or settle, as by authority.
Idioms
24.
lie in state, (of a corpse) to be exhibited publicly with honors before burial:
The president's body lay in state for two days.
Origin
1175-1225; Middle English stat (noun), partly aphetic variant of estat estate, partly < Latin status condition (see status); in defs. 7-11 < Latin status (rērum) state (of things) or status (reī pūblicae) state (of the republic)
Related forms
statable, stateable, adjective
antistate, adjective
counterstate, verb, counterstated, counterstating.
outstate, verb (used with object), outstated, outstating.
substate, noun
unstatable, adjective
unstateable, adjective
Synonyms
1. State, condition, situation, status are terms for existing circumstances or surroundings. State is the general word, often with no concrete implications or material relationships: the present state of affairs. Condition carries an implication of a relationship to causes and circumstances: The conditions made flying impossible. Situation suggests an arrangement of circumstances, related to one another and to the character of a person: He was master of the situation. Status carries official or legal implications; it suggests a complete picture of interrelated circumstances as having to do with rank, position, standing, a stage reached in progress, etc.: the status of negotiations. 3. standing. 17. stately, ceremonial, imposing, dignified. 19. aver, assert, asseverate, affirm. See maintain. 23. determine.
Examples from the web for state
  • Inside are six spacious, state-of-the-art commercial kitchen facilities lined up side by side.
  • Most brands in the supermarket don't state the leaves' origin on the label.
  • Today no salad-time discussion is complete without a word on the state of the season's tomatoes.
  • Sorrow, however, turns out to be not a state but a process.
  • The state regularly makes choices about what to promote or endorse based on judgments about morality.
  • He did not mean that the power of poetry should be publicly recognized or that poets should occupy the offices of state.
  • But they are not members of any state that has redistributive duties to all the world's poor-because no such state exists.
  • His detractors blame him for the state the world is in.
  • Federal and state governments embarked on a nationwide safety upgrade.
  • The conflict was even more egregious a few years ago when, as budget minister, he was also the state's head tax collector.
British Dictionary definitions for state

state

/steɪt/
noun
1.
the condition of a person, thing, etc, with regard to main attributes
2.
the structure, form, or constitution of something: a solid state
3.
any mode of existence
4.
position in life or society; estate
5.
ceremonious style, as befitting wealth or dignity: to live in state
6.
a sovereign political power or community
7.
the territory occupied by such a community
8.
the sphere of power in such a community: affairs of state
9.
(often capital) one of a number of areas or communities having their own governments and forming a federation under a sovereign government, as in the US
10.
(often capital) the body politic of a particular sovereign power, esp as contrasted with a rival authority such as the Church
11.
(obsolete) a class or order; estate
12.
(informal) a nervous, upset, or excited condition (esp in the phrase in a state)
13.
lie in state, (of a body) to be placed on public view before burial
14.
state of affairs, a situation; present circumstances or condition
15.
state of play, the current situation
modifier
16.
controlled or financed by a state: state university
17.
of, relating to, or concerning the State: State trial
18.
involving ceremony or concerned with a ceremonious occasion: state visit
verb (transitive; may take a clause as object)
19.
to articulate in words; utter
20.
to declare formally or publicly: to state one's innocence
21.
to resolve
Derived Forms
statable, stateable, adjective
statehood, noun
Word Origin
C13: from Old French estat, from Latin status a standing, from stāre to stand
Word Origin and History for state
n.

early 13c., "circumstances, temporary attributes of a person or thing, conditions," from Latin status "manner of standing, position, condition," noun of action from past participle stem of stare "to stand" from PIE root *sta- "to stand" (see stet). Some Middle English senses are via Old French estat (French état; see estate).

The Latin word was adopted into other modern Germanic languages (e.g. German, Dutch staat) but chiefly in the political senses only. Meaning "physical condition as regards form or structure" is attested from late 13c. Meaning "mental or emotional condition" is attested from 1530s (phrase state of mind first attested 1749); colloquial sense of "agitated or perturbed state" is from 1837.

He [the President] shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient. [U.S. Constitution, Article II, Section iii]

"political organization of a country, supreme civil power, government," 1530s, from state (n.1); this sense grew out of the meaning "condition of a country" with regard to government, prosperity, etc. (late 13c.), from Latin phrases such as status rei publicæ "condition of the republic." Often in phrase church and state, which is attested from 1580s.

The sense of "semi-independent political entity under a federal authority" (as in the United States of America) is from 1856; the British North American colonies occasionally were called states as far back as 1630s. The states has been short for "the United States of America" since 1777; hence stateside (1944), World War II U.S. military slang. State rights in U.S. political sense is attested from 1798; form states rights is first recorded 1858.

v.

1590s, "to set in a position," from state (n.1); the sense of "declare in words" is first attested 1640s, from the notion of "placing" something on the record. Related: Stated; stating.

state in Medicine

state (stāt)
n.
A condition or situation; status.

Slang definitions & phrases for state

state

Related Terms

in a state


state in Technology

storage, architecture, jargon, theory
How something is; its configuration, attributes, condition, or information content. The state of a system is usually temporary (i.e. it changes with time) and volatile (i.e. it will be lost or reset to some initial state if the system is switched off).
A state may be considered to be a point in some space of all possible states. A simple example is a light, which is either on or off. A complex example is the electrical activation in a human brain while solving a problem.
In computing and related fields, states, as in the light example, are often modelled as being discrete (rather than continuous) and the transition from one state to another is considered to be instantaneous. Another (related) property of a system is the number of possible states it may exhibit. This may be finite or infinite. A common model for a system with a finite number of discrete state is a finite state machine.
[Jargon File]
(1996-10-13)

Idioms and Phrases with state

state

In addition to the idiom beginning with
state
also see: