the political direction and control exercised over the actions of the members, citizens, or inhabitants of communities, societies, and states; direction of the affairs of a state, community, etc.; political administration: Government is necessary to the existence of civilized society.
2.
the form or system of rule by which a state, community, etc., is governed: monarchical government; episcopal government.
3.
the governing body of persons in a state, community, etc.; administration.
4.
a branch or service of the supreme authority of a state or nation, taken as representing the whole: a dam built by the government.
5.
(in some parliamentary systems, as that of the United Kingdom)
a.
the particular group of persons forming the cabinet at any given time: The Prime Minister has formed a new government.
b.
the parliament along with the cabinet: The government has fallen.
6.
direction; control; management; rule: the government of one's conduct.
Grammar. the extablished usage that requires that one word in a sentence should cause another to be of a particular form: the government of the verb by its subject.
[Origin: 1350–1400; ME < OF governement.See govern, -ment]
—Pronunciation note Normal phonological processes are reflected in a variety of pronunciations for government. Most commonly, the first Audio Help/n/Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[n]Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciationof Audio Help/ˈgʌvərnmənt/[guhv-ern-muhnt]assimilates to the immediately following Audio Help/m/[m], with the resulting identical nasal sounds coalescing to give the pronunciation Audio Help/ˈgʌvərmənt/[guhv-er-muhnt]. This pronunciation is considered standard and occurs throughout the U.S. For speakers in regions where postvocalic Audio Help/r/[r]is regularly lost, as along the Eastern Seaboard and in the South, the resulting pronunciation is Audio Help/ˈgʌvəmənt/[guhv-uh-muhnt]or, with loss of the medial unstressed vowel, Audio Help/ˈgʌvmənt/[guhv-muhnt]. Further assimilation, in which the labiodental Audio Help/v/[v], in anticipation of the bilabial quality of the following Audio Help/m/[m], becomes the bilabial stop Audio Help/b/[b], leads in the South Midland and Southern U.S. to the pronunciation Audio Help/ˈgʌbmənt/[guhb-muhnt]. See isn't.
Usage Note: In American usage government always takes a singular verb. In British usage government, in the sense of a governing group of officials, takes a plural verb: The government are determined to follow this course. See Usage Note at collective noun.
Gov"ern*ment\, n. [F. gouvernement. See Govern.]1. The act of governing; the exercise of authority; the administration of laws; control; direction; regulation; as, civil, church, or family government. 2. The mode of governing; the system of polity in a state; the established form of law. That free government which we have so dearly purchased, free commonwealth. --Milton. 3. The right or power of governing; authority. I here resign my government to thee. --Shak. 4. The person or persons authorized to administer the laws; the ruling power; the administration. When we, in England, speak of the government, we generally understand the ministers of the crown for the time being. --Mozley & W. 5. The body politic governed by one authority; a state; as, the governments of Europe. 6. Management of the limbs or body. --Shak. 7. (Gram.) The influence of a word in regard to construction, requiring that another word should be in a particular case.
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Audio Help [guhv-ern-muh
