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1. The territory occupied by one of the constituent administrative districts of a nation
   "his state is in the deep south";
   - province
    
2. The way something is with respect to its main attributes
   "the current state of knowledge"; "his state of health"; "in a weak financial state"
    
3. The group of people comprising the government of a sovereign state
   "the state has lowered its income tax"
    
4. A politically organized body of people under a single government
   "the state has elected a new president";
   - nation, country, land, commonwealth, res publica, body politic
    
5. (chemistry) the three traditional states of matter are solids (fixed shape and volume) and liquids (fixed volume and shaped by the container) and gases (filling the container)
   "the solid state of water is called ice";
   - state of matter
    
6. A state of depression or agitation
   "he was in such a state you just couldn't reason with him"
    
7. The territory occupied by a nation
   "he visited several European states";
   - country, land

1. Express in words
   "state your opinion";
   - say, tell
    
2. Put before
   "I state to you that the accused is guilty";
   - submit, put forward, posit
    
3. Indicate through a symbol, formula, etc.
   "Can you state this distance in kilometres?";
   - express

1. The federal department in the United States that sets and maintains foreign policies
   "the Department of State was created in 1789"; "the United States Department of State was created in 1789"; "the State Department was created in 1789";
   - Department of State, United States Department of State, State Department, DoS

Derived forms: stating, States, states, stated

See also: gaseous, liquid, solid

Type of: administrative district, administrative division, advise, attribute, authorities, chemical phenomenon, denote, emotional state, executive department, express, give tongue to, government, political entity, political unit, propose, refer, regime, spirit, suggest, territorial division, utter, verbalise [Brit], verbalize

Encyclopedia: State, Joseph