police state
noun
: a political unit characterized by repressive governmental control of political, economic, and social life usually by an arbitrary exercise of power by police and especially secret police in place of regular operation of administrative and judicial organs of the government according to publicly known legal procedures
Examples of police state in a Sentence
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Even if that were the case, this sort of oppressive militarized police state — where anyone can be stopped for any reason — is exactly what the Fourth Amendment rejected and was meant to prevent.
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Daniel Harawa, Twin Cities, 5 Oct. 2025
In any event, cities around the country have reduced crime dramatically without engaging in the tactics of a police state.
—Elizabeth Goitein, Time, 27 Sep. 2025
Far fewer have the nerve to suggest that, as a beleaguered antifascist remnant stares down a white-supremacist police state, a biracial child will lead them.
—Justin Chang, New Yorker, 26 Sep. 2025
Under Marcos’s rule—which was propped up publicly by U.S. military aid and secretly by CIA assistance—the Philippines had been transformed into a police state.
—Vann R. Newkirk Ii, The Atlantic, 16 Sep. 2025
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Daniel Harawa, Twin Cities, 5 Oct. 2025
In any event, cities around the country have reduced crime dramatically without engaging in the tactics of a police state.
—Elizabeth Goitein, Time, 27 Sep. 2025
Far fewer have the nerve to suggest that, as a beleaguered antifascist remnant stares down a white-supremacist police state, a biracial child will lead them.
—Justin Chang, New Yorker, 26 Sep. 2025
Under Marcos’s rule—which was propped up publicly by U.S. military aid and secretly by CIA assistance—the Philippines had been transformed into a police state.
—Vann R. Newkirk Ii, The Atlantic, 16 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for police state
Cite this Entry
“Police state.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/police%20state. Accessed 21 Oct. 2025.
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