state

state (steɪt)
—n
1.	the condition of a person, thing, etc, with regard to main attributes
2.	the structure, form, or constitution of something: a solid state
3.	any mode of existence
4.	position in life or society; estate
5.	ceremonious style, as befitting wealth or dignity: to live in state
6.	a sovereign political power or community
7.	the territory occupied by such a community
8.	the sphere of power in such a community: affairs of state
9.	(often capital) one of a number of areas or communities having their own governments and forming a federation under a sovereign government, as in the US
10.	(often capital) the body politic of a particular sovereign power, esp as contrasted with a rival authority such as the Church
11.	obsolete a class or order; estate
12.	informal a nervous, upset, or excited condition (esp in the phrase in a state)
13.	lie in state (of a body) to be placed on public view before burial
14.	state of affairs a situation; present circumstances or condition
15.	state of play the current situation
—modifier
16.	controlled or financed by a state: state university
17.	of, relating to, or concerning the State: State trial
18.	involving ceremony or concerned with a ceremonious occasion: state visit
—vb
19.	to articulate in words; utter
20.	to declare formally or publicly: to state one's innocence
21.	to resolve
[C13: from Old French estat, from Latin status a standing, from stāre to stand]
'statable
—adj
'stateable
—adj
'statehood
—n

state
EXPAND

état; see estate). The L. word was adopted into other modern Gmc. languages (e.g. Ger., Du. staat) but chiefly in the political senses only. Meaning "physical condition as regards form or structure" is attested from late 13c. Meaning "mental or emotional condition" is attested from 1530s (phrase state of mind first attested 1749); colloquial sense of "agitated or perturbed state" is from 1837.

"He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient." [U.S. Constitution, Article II, Section iii]

state

c.1590, "to set in a position," from state (n.1); the sense of "declare in words" is first attested 1647, from the notion of "placing" something on the record. Statement is attested from 1775.

state

"political organization of a country, supreme civil power, government," 1530s, from state (n.1); this sense grew out of the meaning "condition of a country" with regard to government, prosperity, etc. (late 13c.), from L. phrases such as status rei publicæ "condition

of the republic." Often in phrase church and state, which is attested from 1580s. The sense of "semi-independent political entity under a federal authority" (as in the United States of America) is from 1856; the British North American colonies occasionally were called states as far back as 1630s. The states has been short for "the United States of America" since 1777; hence stateside (1944), World War II U.S. military slang. State rights in U.S. political sense is attested from 1798; form states rights is first recorded 1858. Statesman is from 1590s

COLLAPSE

state (stāt)
n.
A condition or situation; status.

state definition

storage, architecture, jargon, theory
How something is; its configuration, attributes, condition, or information content. The state of a system is usually temporary (i.e. it changes with time) and volatile (i.e. it will be lost or reset to some initial state if the system is switched off).
A state may be considered to be a point in some space of all possible states. A simple example is a light, which is either on or off. A complex example is the electrical activation in a human brain while solving a problem.
In computing and related fields, states, as in the light example, are often modelled as being discrete (rather than continuous) and the transition from one state to another is considered to be instantaneous. Another (related) property of a system is the number of possible states it may exhibit. This may be finite or infinite. A common model for a system with a finite number of discrete state is a finite state machine.
[Jargon File]
(1996-10-13)

state

In addition to the idiom beginning with state, also see in a lather (state); in state; ship of state.