Word.ws English Dictionary

body politic

body politic noun: the collective body of a nation or state as politically organized.

Noun

body politic (plural bodies politic)

  1. (figuratively) The collective body of a nation or state as politically organized.
    • In Bodies Politique the power of the Repreſentative is alwaies Limited: And that which preſcribeth the Limits thereof, is the Power Soveraign.1651, Thomas Hobbes, “Of Systems Subject Political and Private”, in Leviathan, or The Matter, Forme, & Power of a Common-wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civill, London: […] [William Wilson] for Andrew...
    • In contrast to all other groups, the Jews were defined and their position determined by the body politic.1951, Hannah Arendt, “The Jews, the Nation-state, and the Birth of Antisemitism”, in The Origins of Totalitarianism (A Harvest/HBJ Book), new edition, San Diego, Calif.; New York, N.Y.: Harcourt...
  2. (figuratively) The collective body of a nation or state as exercising political functions.
  3. (archaic) A corporation.

body politic meaning in Tamil

body politic in Tamil

மக்கள் தொகுதி

Forms of body politic

pluralbodies politic
alternative form (obsolete)body politique

Origin of body politic

From body + politic (postpositive adjective), calque of Latin corpus polīticum.

Questions about body politic

What does body politic mean?
Body politic means the collective body of a nation or state as politically organized.
What is body politic in Tamil?
Body politic in Tamil is மக்கள் தொகுதி. See Body politic meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is body politic?
Body politic is a noun.
What is the plural of body politic?
The plural of body politic is bodies politic.

Words near body politic in the dictionary

  1. body piercings
  2. body pillow
  3. body pillows
  4. body plan
  5. body plans
  6. body politic
  7. body politique
  8. body positivity
  9. body press
  10. body presses
  11. body pump

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: body politic (page history and authors); body politic (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “body politic.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/body_politic. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.