as in republic
a state that has its own government and consists of a city and the area around it
the city-states of ancient Greece
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Recent Examples of city-state
In the wealthy city-state of Singapore, migrant workers are excluded from the country’s Employment Act and limits on working hours, among other protections, and are restricted from participating in union activities, the report said.
—
Elaine Kurtenbach, Los Angeles Times, 5 Feb. 2026
The mayor talked about the new level of city-state cooperation.
—Alexa Herrera, CBS News, 8 Jan. 2026
With crops failing and fears of starvation rising, some wealthy Italian city-states like Florence and Venice imported grain from elsewhere in the world.
—Evan Bush, NBC news, 4 Dec. 2025
An ensuing grain shortage threatened to spark a famine or civil unrest, so Italian city-states, such as Venice and Genoa, resorted to emergency imports from the Black Sea region, which helped keep the population fed.
—Jacopo Prisco, CNN Money, 4 Dec. 2025
See All Example Sentences for city-state
Elaine Kurtenbach, Los Angeles Times, 5 Feb. 2026
The mayor talked about the new level of city-state cooperation.
—Alexa Herrera, CBS News, 8 Jan. 2026
With crops failing and fears of starvation rising, some wealthy Italian city-states like Florence and Venice imported grain from elsewhere in the world.
—Evan Bush, NBC news, 4 Dec. 2025
An ensuing grain shortage threatened to spark a famine or civil unrest, so Italian city-states, such as Venice and Genoa, resorted to emergency imports from the Black Sea region, which helped keep the population fed.
—Jacopo Prisco, CNN Money, 4 Dec. 2025
See All Example Sentences for city-state
Recent Examples of Synonyms for city-state
Noun
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Nothing could illustrate the absurdity of 2026 quite like an upcoming concert by Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, in a former Soviet republic being produced by Live Nation Israel.—
Shirley Halperin,
Rolling Stone,
14 May 2026
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Perhaps not coincidentally, Russia invaded the former Soviet republic of Georgia later that year.—
Anne Applebaum,
The Atlantic,
11 May 2026
Noun
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But the setting isn’t, say, a fairy tale village or a mermaid kingdom under the sea, to point at two Disney classics the film gives winking reference to.—
Wilson Chapman,
IndieWire,
15 May 2026
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Absolute kingdoms of the '90s and early-2000s.—
Zach Dean OutKick,
FOXNews.com,
15 May 2026
Noun
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That mugshot—with her straight dark hair, motorcycle jacket, and flat, defiant stare—would come to represent a nation, and generation, in crisis; a startling declaration that America’s own sons and daughters had turned violently against their country.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
19 May 2026
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Local officials called the incident the worst single diving accident in the history of the Maldives, a nation of 1,192 tiny coral islands scattered some 500 miles across the equator in the Indian Ocean.—
CBS News,
CBS News,
18 May 2026
Noun
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Within that diversity, the most conspicuous large-scale formations were always transnational empires.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
18 May 2026
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Sabrina graduated from Harvard, and Tucker has expanded his bar empire.—
Caroline Blair,
PEOPLE,
17 May 2026
Noun
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Beyond that lies the equestrian and agricultural country of Somerset County, including Moorland Farm, home of the annual Far Hills Race Meet horse race for more than 100 years.—
Condé Nast,
Condé Nast Traveler,
16 May 2026
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Just 15 minutes east, is Vega, Texas – a small country town with sprinkles of Route 66 memorabilia.—
Chelsea Torres,
FOXNews.com,
16 May 2026
Noun
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The Austrian archduchess Marie Louise, former empress of the French, who was granted Parma, Piacenza, and Guastalla for her lifetime, preserved some of the Napoleonic administrative and legal structure in the duchy.—
Britannica Editors,
Encyclopedia Britannica,
12 Mar. 2026
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La Tour was born in Lorraine, a duchy of the Holy Roman Empire, in 1593, twenty-one years after Caravaggio, whose sensational combination of naturalism and theater, light and dark, formed him as a painter.—
Nicole Krauss,
Harpers Magazine,
24 Feb. 2026
Noun
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Voters had narrowly approved the new congressional map in the referendum, which likely would have shifted the commonwealth’s congressional delegation from a 6-5 Democratic advantage to a 10-1 Democratic advantage.—
Jack Birle,
The Washington Examiner,
11 May 2026
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Democrats’ narrower-than-expected but still-decisive win in Tuesday’s plebiscite undoing the commonwealth’s own truce may or may not be the end of it.—
Chris Stirewalt,
The Hill,
24 Apr. 2026
Noun
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The principality functions simultaneously as backdrop, laboratory and customer base.—
Stephan Rabimov,
Forbes.com,
17 May 2026
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The late actress became the Princess of the principality in 1956, and 70 years later, her second engagement ring remains one of the most expensive and influential in history.—
Alyssa Modos,
PEOPLE,
7 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“City-state.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/city-state. Accessed 21 May. 2026.
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