What does "statehood" mean?

The property of being a state, an autonomous subdivision of a federal country.

Statehood

Common synonyms include: independence, internationalism, nationalism, nationality, self-determination, self-government.

//ˈsteɪthʊd// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
The property of being a state, an autonomous subdivision of a federal country. countable, uncountable
"Alaska didn't attain statehood until 1959, when it became the 49th state of the United States."
2
The condition of being a country. countable, uncountable
"Medvedev cited these supposed “Western analysts” in order to propagate Russia’s colonial fantasy: envisioning Ukraine’s territory reduced to just the Kyiv region, while the remainder of Ukraine would be divided among Russia, Poland, Romania, and Hungary. Such a narrative recalls Putin’s February 2022 speech questioning Ukraine’s statehood and accompanies intensifying Russian calls to expand its “special military operation” to realize its imperial map."

"The US doesn't recognize Taiwan's statehood."

From state + -hood.

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