Government

//ˈɡʌv.ɚ.mənt// noun

noun ·Very common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The body with the power to make and/or enforce laws to control a country, land area, people or organization. countable, uncountable

    "British government has historically centred exclusively on London."

  2. 2
    the act of governing; exercising authority wordnet
  3. 3
    The relationship between a word and its dependents. countable, uncountable
  4. 4
    (government) the system or form by which a community or other political unit is governed wordnet
  5. 5
    The state and its administration viewed as the ruling political power. countable, uncountable

    "Near-synonyms: state, administration"

Show 7 more definitions
  1. 6
    the study of government of states and other political units wordnet
  2. 7
    The management or control of a system. uncountable

    "The government of the Church is maintained without material alteration in a settled hierarchical form."

  3. 8
    the organization that is the governing authority of a political unit wordnet
  4. 9
    The tenure of a head of government; the ministry or administration led by a specified individual. countable, uncountable

    "The Sunak government announced plans to stem the flow of migrants coming into Great Britain."

  5. 10
    In a parliamentary system, the political party or coalition in power; its condition of being in power. countable, uncountable
  6. 11
    The team tasked with presenting and speaking in favour of a resolution, as opposed to the opposition. countable, uncountable
  7. 12
    Ellipsis of government name, one's legal name according to a government. abbreviation, alt-of, countable, ellipsis, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms
administrationgovernancepoliticsadministrationarchbishopricarchdiocese

Example

More examples

"Democracy is the worst form of government, except all the others that have been tried."

Etymology

From Middle English governement, from Old French governement (modern French gouvernement), from governer (see govern) + -ment. Morphologically govern + -ment. Displaced native Old English gerec, leodweard, ræden, rǣding and ealdordōm.

Related phrases

Jewish occupation governmentZionist occupation governmentanti-governmentband governmentbranch of governmentcaretaker governmentcentral governmentclose enough for government worke-governmentform of governmentgood enough for government workgovernment agent

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.