Get the FREE one-click dictionary software for Windows
or the iPhone/iPad and Android apps
Noun: police state  pu'lees steyt
  1. A country that maintains repressive control over the people by means of police (especially secret police)
    "The dictatorship had turned the country into a police state"

Derived forms: police states

Type of: absolutism, authoritarianism, Caesarism, despotism, dictatorship, monocracy, one-man rule, shogunate, Stalinism, totalitarianism, tyranny

Encyclopedia: Police state