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
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
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
See All Example Sentences for city-state
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
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
See All Example Sentences for city-state
Recent Examples of Synonyms for city-state
Noun
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But right from the start of the republic, presidents have chosen close political allies to serve as attorney general.—
Austin Sarat,
The Conversation,
3 Apr. 2026
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Its Ten-Point Plan calls for a secular democratic republic, a non-nuclear Iran, gender equality, separation of religion and state, a free-market economy, peaceful coexistence with the world, and recognition of the rights of Iran’s diverse nationalities within a unified country.—
Kazem Kazerounian,
Hartford Courant,
1 Apr. 2026
Noun
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Even so, the kingdom was facing a drop of more than 25% in exports last month.—
Gerry Doyle,
Fortune,
5 Apr. 2026
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Whatever efficiency may be gained from using the tool could easily be undone in the event a threat actor obtains the keys to a network kingdom.—
Dan Goodin,
ArsTechnica,
3 Apr. 2026
Noun
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Groypers believe that for decades America has prostrated itself to immigrants and foreign nations at the expense of its own languishing citizens.—
Antonia Hitchens,
New Yorker,
6 Apr. 2026
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Meanwhile, drone incursions into neighboring countries -- among them NATO allies -- have raised concerns of the war spilling over into non-combatant nations.—
David Brennan,
ABC News,
6 Apr. 2026
Noun
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This also marks the second-biggest domestic launch of all time for Illumination, the animation empire founded by Chris Meledandri.—
Rebecca Rubin,
Variety,
5 Apr. 2026
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Over the centuries, it would be conquered by empires of varying beliefs.—
Seth Doane,
CBS News,
5 Apr. 2026
Noun
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That decade started with the 1973 oil embargo by Arab countries who were members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC, and ended with the 1979 Iranian Revolution, which many attribute to helping end Jimmy Carter's presidency.—
Phillip M. Bailey,
USA Today,
4 Apr. 2026
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And both reckon with the extent to which historical ignorance and the calculated distortion of the past threaten the foundation on which our country was built.—
Francine Prose,
The New York Review of Books,
4 Apr. 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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Boone and Henderson counties are among the cheapest places to buy gas in the commonwealth.—
Marina Johnson,
Louisville Courier Journal,
1 Apr. 2026
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Hayes stressed in his statement to the Washington Examiner that taxes from skill games could raise significant revenue for the commonwealth and small business owners.—
Robert Schmad,
The Washington Examiner,
22 Mar. 2026
Noun
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Monaco's population of 38,000 is heavily Catholic and multinational, with only a fifth of the population actually citizens of the principality.—
CBS News,
CBS News,
28 Mar. 2026
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Monaco’s population of 38,000 is heavily Catholic and multinational, with only a fifth of the population actually citizens of the principality.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
28 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“City-state.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/city-state. Accessed 7 Apr. 2026.
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