welfare state

noun

1

: a social system based on the assumption by a political state of primary responsibility for the individual and social welfare of its citizens

2

: a nation or state characterized by the operation of the welfare state system

Examples of welfare state in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

But four years after voting for leftwing former student leader Gabriel Boric to become the country's youngest ever president with a mandate to expand the welfare state in Chile, this race looks radically different. —NPR, 14 Nov. 2025

The middle class does face crushing rents, but New York also operates what is vastly the largest welfare state of any city in the country. —Ben Smith, semafor.com, 10 Nov. 2025

But that will undermine growth, strain public finances, and erode Europe’s capacity to fund its prized welfare state. —Jonathan Portes, Time, 29 Oct. 2025

The socialist appeared to agree with the iconic free-market economist Milton Friedman that unregulated immigration was incompatible with a welfare state, but for opposite reasons. —W. James Antle Iii, The Washington Examiner, 28 Oct. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1894, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for welfare state

• abbreviate
• accelerate
• accommodate
• accumulate
• acuminate
• adjudicate
• adulterate
• affiliate
• agglomerate
• agglutinate
• alleviate
• amalgamate

Kids Definition

welfare state

noun

: a social system in which the government takes on much of the responsibility for the individual and group welfare of its people