Etimology
From Middle English stat (as a noun); adopted c. 1200 from both Old French estat and Latin status (“manner of standing, attitude, position, carriage, manner, dress, apparel; and other senses”), from stare (“to stand”). Doublet of estate and status. The sense of "polity" develops in the 14th century. Compare French être, Greek στέω (stéo), Italian stare, Portuguese estar, Romanian sta, and Spanish estar.
noun
state (plural states)
A condition; a set of circumstances applying at any given time.
High social standing or circumstance.
A polity.
(mathematics, stochastic processes) An element of the range of the random variables that define a random process.
(grammar, semantics) The lexical aspect (aktionsart) of verbs or predicates that do not change over time.
Examples
a state of being
a state of emergency
Relate what Latium was, her ancient Kings : / Declare the paſt, and preſent State of things, / When firſt the Trojan Fleet Auſonia ſought ; / And how the Rivals lov’d, and how they fought.
I corralled the judge, and we started off across the fields, in no very mild state of fear of that gentleman's wife, whose vigilance was seldom relaxed.
States in which the energy has definite values are called stationary states of a system; they are described by wave functions Ψₙ which are the eigenfunctions of the Hamiltonian operator, i.e. which satisfy the equation ĤΨₙ = EₙΨₙ, where Eₙ are the eigenvalues of the energy.
Synonyms: see Thesaurus:difficult situation
absolute state
in a state
in a bit of a state
Who the fuck undressed me? Try tracing back. It's now Sunday. Yesterday was Saturday. The semi-final at Hampden. I had got myself into some fucking state before and after the match.
An absolute state of a visit: what the Trump and Windsor snapshots tell us [title]
In the fetch state, the address of the next instruction is placed on the address bus.
The state here includes a set containing all names seen so far.
A debugger can show the state of a program at any breakpoint.
in state
The President's body will lie in state at the Capitol.
And leſned by that ſmall, God I beſeech him, / Thy honor, ſtate, and ſeate, is due to me.
Firſt, in princely behaviour and geſture, teaching him how he ſhould keep of a kind of ſtate, and yet, with a modeſt ſenſe of his misfortunes.
Can this imperious lord forget to reign, / Quit all his ſtate, deſcend, and ſerve again ?
[…] and from the dore / Of that Plutonia Hall, inviſible / Aſcended his high Throne, which under ſtate / Of richeſt texture ſpred, at th’ upper end / Was plac’t in regal luſtre.
He invented a way of coming into a Room backwards, which he ſaid ſhew’d more Humility, and leſs Affectation ; where other People ſtood, he ſat ; when he went to Court, he us’d to kick away the State, and ſit down by his Prince, Cheek by Choul […]
We in the name of other Perſean ſtates,And commons of this mightie Monarchy,Preſent thee with the Emperiall Diadem.
They who to States and Governours of the Commonwealth direct their Speech, High Court of Parlament, or wanting ſuch acceſſe in a private condition, write that which they foreſee may advance the publick good ; I ſuppoſe them as at the beginning of no meane endeavour, not a little alter’d and mov’d inwardly in their mindes […]
Their parties great, meanes good, the ſeaſon fit, / Their practice cloſe, their faith ſuſpected not, / Their ſtates far off, and they of wary wit : / Who, with large promiſes, ſo wooe the Scot / To aide their Cauſe, as he conſents to it ; / And glad was to diſturne that furious ſtreame / Of warre, on vs, that elſe had ſwallowed them.
Your ’State, my Lord, again is yours.
Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it.
It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: […]; […]; or perhaps to muse on the irrelevance of the borders that separate nation states and keep people from understanding their shared environment.
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
You do solemnly swear that you will support the constitution of the United States, and the constitution of the state of Connecticut, so long as you continue a citizen thereof; and that you will faithfully discharge, according to law, the duties of the office of […] to the best of your abilities.
As Australia considers whether to allow states greater latitude in the indirect tax field, it must ask what it will do when it finally decides that the federal government should enact a modern general sales tax.
The Central Lowlands is often referred to as the heart of America — and with good reason: If we look at the names of the eight states with populations of 10 million or more, this region has three of them, Illinois, Ohio, and Michigan, more than any one of the other five.
Well monarchies may own religion’s name, / But ſtates are atheiſts in their very frame.
Antonym: occurrence
[…] distinctions among states of affairs are reflected to a striking degree in distinctions among Aktionsart types. That is, situations are expressed by state verbs or predicates, events by achievement verbs or predicates, and actions by activity verbs or predicates.
The most basic Aktionsart distinction is between states and occurrences.
Related words
hyponyms
absolute state
Bayou State
Bear State
Bell state
Big Bend State
Blackwater State
Blue Hen State
blue state
bound state
buffer state
cat state
Chinook State
city state
client state
cluster state
continental state
convention state
Cracker State
Creole State
deep state
Ecclesiastical State
end state
excited state
failed state
federal state
feudatory state
Flower State
flyover state
free state
fugue state
Gem State
graph state
green state
ground state
hole state
iron state
island state
landlocked state
link state
Lumber State
member state
nanny state
narco state
night watchman state
Papal States
party state
police state
prerogative state
princely state
pseudostate
puppet state
purple state
quantum state
red state
rogue state
rump state
save state
sea state
solid state
sovereign state
steady state
swing state
transition state
unitary state
upstate
vassal state
wait state
welfare state
verb
state (third-person singular simple present states, present participle stating, simple past and past participle stated)
(transitive) To declare to be a fact.
(transitive) To make known.
Examples
He stated that he was willing to help.
Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers, of errand not wholly obvious to their fellows, yet of such sort as to call into query alike the nature of their errand and their own relations. It is easily earned repetition to state that Josephine St. Auban's was a presence not to be concealed.
State your intentions.
Related words
synonyms
See Thesaurus:communicate
adjective
state (comparative more state, superlative most state)
(obsolete) Stately.
Examples
The ſhepheardes ſwayne you cannot well ken, / But it be by his pride, from other men: / They looken bigge as Bulles, that bene bate, / And bearen the cragge ſo ſtiffe and ſo ſtate, / As Cocke on his dunghill, crowing cranck.