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
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
Grace Fu has served as Singapore's environmental chief since 2020, allocating nearly $4 billion to coastal resilience projects in the low-lying city-state while leading international negotiations on climate policy.
—Elisabeth Brier, Forbes.com, 18 Sep. 2025
Consequently, Persia abandoned its westward expansion, while various Greek city-states formed a tenuous alliance that lasted nearly 50 years.
—Debbie Felton, The Conversation, 8 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for city-state
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
Grace Fu has served as Singapore's environmental chief since 2020, allocating nearly $4 billion to coastal resilience projects in the low-lying city-state while leading international negotiations on climate policy.
—Elisabeth Brier, Forbes.com, 18 Sep. 2025
Consequently, Persia abandoned its westward expansion, while various Greek city-states formed a tenuous alliance that lasted nearly 50 years.
—Debbie Felton, The Conversation, 8 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for city-state
Recent Examples of Synonyms for city-state
Noun
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Some 60% of Norwegians supported the monarchy, down from 70% in January, according to the Norstat poll published on February 21 by public broadcaster NRK, while 27% supported a republic, up from 19% over the same period.—
Reuters,
NBC news,
20 Mar. 2026
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The attacks by Iran came after strikes on the Islamic republic’s energy production facilities – the first since the war began and a major escalation in the conflict, which had largely spared Iran’s energy infrastructure.—
Hanna Ziady,
CNN Money,
19 Mar. 2026
Noun
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The Gulf kingdom is angry that a war partly framed as protecting the flows of oil and gas is now setting its vital infrastructure ablaze, the official said.—
Alexander Smith,
NBC news,
19 Mar. 2026
-
Notably in 2011, the first deployment of the GCC’s Peninsula Shield Force to Bahrain, with Saudi and UAE forces entering the kingdom at the behest of the government, seemed to go off without a hitch.—
Hadley Gamble,
semafor.com,
19 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
Salvadoran nationals who were deported from the United States have been arbitrarily detained in El Salvador and have disappeared into the Central American nation's prison system, according to a Human Rights Watch report released on Monday.—
CBS News,
CBS News,
17 Mar. 2026
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Russian armed forces launched an unprovoked attack on Ukraine in February 2022 that’s believed to have resulted in nearly 2 million casualties between the warring nations.—
Brian Niemietz,
New York Daily News,
17 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
In the ancient kingship tradition, endangering the empire would cause a king to lose his farr.—
Azadeh Moaveni,
New Yorker,
22 Mar. 2026
-
Two absurd explanations were offered last week for how Poland surpassed Switzerland to become one of the world’s 20 largest economies just 34 years after the collapse of the Soviet empire.—
Editorial Board,
Washington Post,
22 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
Umerov, the secretary of Ukraine’s national security and defense council, visited the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and Jordan in the past week and said the drone defenses were deployed in those countries.—
Cybele Mayes-Osterman,
USA Today,
21 Mar. 2026
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In a telephone interview with Kyodo News on Friday, Araghchi denied closing the passageway, insisting instead that countries attacking Iran face restrictions, while others were being offered assistance.—
CBS News,
CBS News,
21 Mar. 2026
Noun
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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
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The Duchy of Cornwall, established in 1337 by King Edward III, is one of two royal duchies, a type of land management and financial investment firm that can carry the functions of a corporation or trust.—
Edward Segarra,
USA Today,
30 Dec. 2025
Noun
-
Kay Scarpetta is, like many protagonists of these sorts of stories, a remarkable and mythical investigator, returning to her old job as chief medical examiner of the commonwealth of Virginia in order to spend more time with her grieving niece, Lucy (DeBose), who has lost her wife.—
Kelly Lawler,
USA Today,
10 Mar. 2026
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Thousands of backers have cheered him on at rallies around the commonwealth, while each of those events were met by crowds of protesters.—
Leo Bertucci,
Louisville Courier Journal,
8 Mar. 2026
Noun
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Also known as a Jodhpuri suit, the bandhgala originated in the principality of Rajasthani Jodhpur in the 16th century.—
Brendan Ruberry,
semafor.com,
15 Jan. 2026
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Yoshi is arguably among the most upscale spots for Japanese cuisine in the principality.—
Lane Nieset,
Travel + Leisure,
18 Nov. 2025
Cite this Entry
“City-state.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/city-state. Accessed 23 Mar. 2026.
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