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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Voting is the highest civic act in a constitutional republic.—
Matt Klink,
Oc Register,
1 May 2026
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The general’s comments come after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said in statements that Ukraine has evidence Russia provided Iran intelligence support and material support for the Islamic republic’s drone programs.—
Bart Jansen,
USA Today,
30 Apr. 2026
Noun
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Last month, Taiwan said China had forced three Indian Ocean countries to pull overflight permission for Lai's aircraft to travel to the small southern African kingdom of Eswatini for the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III's accession.—
Reuters,
NBC news,
3 May 2026
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Yura’s nemeses, who are part of her elderly father’s underwater court, seem to be after her magical flute, an ancient device that controls their kingdom’s dragon.—
Beatrice Loayza,
Variety,
1 May 2026
Noun
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The forty-niners are elemental to our identity as a nation of brave, rugged individualists.—
Jennifer Wilson,
New Yorker,
4 May 2026
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Authorities in the West African island nation have denied the MV Hondius permission to dock at the port of Praia as a precautionary measure, complicating efforts to evacuate sick passengers and provide urgent medical care.—
Antonio María Delgado,
Miami Herald,
4 May 2026
Noun
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In America, the lessons of Impressionism—which coincided in France with the end of an empire and the beginning of the enduring Third Republic—fell on receptive ground.—
Sebastian Smee,
New Yorker,
4 May 2026
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When evil empires collide The latest supervillains in cahoots are Duke basketball and Amazon owner Jeff Bezos.—
Paul Sullivan,
Chicago Tribune,
3 May 2026
Noun
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Though Baudelaire was influenced by Poe’s macabre imagination, decadence never developed its own school in nineteenth-century America, then still a young country.—
Olivia Kan-Sperling,
Artforum,
2 May 2026
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Want to learn more about faraway countries on free embassy tours?—
Fritz Hahn,
Washington Post,
1 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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The commonwealth’s decision to draw a new map comes after Texas, Missouri, Ohio, and North Carolina enacted new maps to add Republican seats, while California and Utah enacted new maps adding Democratic seats.—
Jack Birle,
The Washington Examiner,
28 Apr. 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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With that, Grace decided to abandon her blazing career in Hollywood and move to the small principality of Monaco.—
Francesca Pellegrini,
Vanity Fair,
19 Apr. 2026
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On this day in 1956, the two-day wedding celebration of Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier III began in the tiny European principality of Monaco.—
Encyclopedia Britannica,
Encyclopedia Britannica,
14 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“City-state.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/city-state. Accessed 7 May. 2026.
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