government

/ˈgʌvərnmɪnt/

/ˈgʌvənmɪnt/

Other forms: governments

Your government is the system of people, laws, and officials that define and control the country that you live in. The U.S. government, for example, is a representative democracy with three branches.

There are many different kinds of government, but they all do essentially the same thing: "govern" or oversee the rules, regulations, and interactions of the people who live under them. For the most part, a government is concerned with public life, though many of the laws that a government like ours establishes and enforces can regulate what happens in private life, too. If you work for the government, you're in public life. If you work for a company, you're in the private sector.

Definitions of government

1. noun

   (government) the system or form by which a community or other political unit is governed
   “tyrannical government”

   type of:

   system, system of rules

   a complex of methods or rules governing behavior
2. noun

   the organization that is the governing authority of a political unit
   “the government reduced taxes”

   synonyms: authorities, regime

   types:

   authoritarian regime, authoritarian state

   a government that concentrates political power in an authority not responsible to the people

   bureaucracy

   a government that is administered primarily by bureaus that are staffed with nonelective officials

   ancien regime

   a political and social system that no longer governs (especially the system that existed in France before the French Revolution)

   court, royal court

   the sovereign and his advisers who are the governing power of a state

   Downing Street

   the British government

   empire

   a group of countries under a single authority

   federal government

   a government with strong central powers

   government-in-exile

   a temporary government moved to or formed in a foreign land by exiles who hope to rule when their country is liberated

   local government

   the government of a local area

   military government, stratocracy

   government by the military and an army

   palace

   the governing group of a kingdom

   papacy, pontificate

   the government of the Roman Catholic Church

   puppet government, puppet regime, puppet state

   a government that is appointed by and whose affairs are directed by an outside authority that may impose hardships on those governed

   state

   the group of people comprising the government of a sovereign state

   state government

   the government of a state in the United States

   totalitarian state, totalitation regime

   a government that subordinates the individual to the state and strictly controls all aspects of life by coercive measures

   Court of Saint James's

   the British royal court

   Porte, Sublime Porte

   the Ottoman court in Constantinople

   Soviets

   the government of the Soviet Union

   welfare state

   a government that undertakes responsibility for the welfare of its citizens through programs in public health and public housing and pensions and unemployment compensation etc.

   municipal government

   the government of a municipality

   town meeting

   government of a town by an assembly of the qualified voters

   U.S., U.S. government, US Government, United States, United States government

   the executive and legislative and judicial branches of the federal government of the United States

   type of:

   polity

   a politically organized unit
3. noun

   the act of governing; exercising authority
   “he had considerable experience of government”

   synonyms: administration, governance, governing, government activity

   types:

   misgovernment, misrule

   government that is inefficient or dishonest

   lawmaking, legislating, legislation

   the act of making or enacting laws

   trust busting

   (law) government activities seeking to dissolve corporate trusts and monopolies (especially under the United States antitrust laws)

   criminalisation, criminalization

   legislation that makes something illegal

   decriminalisation, decriminalization

   legislation that makes something legal that was formerly illegal

   enactment, passage

   the passing of a law by a legislative body

   type of:

   social control

   control exerted (actively or passively) by group action
4. noun

   the study of government of states and other political units
   synonyms: political science, politics

   types:

   geopolitics

   the study of the effects of economic geography on the powers of the state

   practical politics, realpolitik

   politics based on practical rather than moral or ideological considerations

   geostrategy

   government and military planning as it relates to land, climate, and natural resources and the ways that people interact with them

   type of:

   social science

   the branch of science that studies society and the relationships of individual within a society