slave state

noun

1

: a state of the U.S. in which slavery was legal until the Civil War

2

: a nation subjected to totalitarian rule

Examples of slave state in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

In the end, Missouri was admitted as a slave state, with Maine entering the Union as a free state, under the Missouri Compromise of 1820. — USA Today, 28 July 2026

What would that have meant, for example, for the other slave states of the Americas? — David Frum, The Atlantic, 8 July 2026

Weld travelled by water to Lane Theological Seminary, in Cincinnati, which was across the Ohio River from Kentucky, a slave state. — The New Yorker, New Yorker, 4 July 2026

The Three-Fifths Compromise undoubtedly increased the political power of slave states and affected how electoral votes were allocated. — Bobby Burack Outkick, FOXNews.com, 23 June 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1809, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for slave state

• abdicate
• abrogate
• acetate
• activate
• actuate
• aggravate
• agitate
• alginate
• alienate
• allocate
• amputate
• angulate