Word.ws English Dictionary

civilization-state

civilization-state noun: a political entity (a state) associated with a particular civilization.

Noun

civilization-state (plural civilization-states)

  1. A political entity (a state) associated with a particular civilization.
    • Although China has described itself as a nation-state for the last century, it is in essence a civilization-state. The longest continually existing polity in the world, it dates to 221 BC and the victory of the Qin. Unlike Western nation-states, China's sense of identity comes from its long history...2009, LA Times, 22 November, Martin Jacques http://articles.latimes.com/2009/nov/22/opinion/la-oe-jacques22-2009nov22
    • China may call itself a nation-state (although only for the past century), but in essence it is a civilization-state dating back at least two millennia.2010, Newsweek, 25 January, Martin Jacques

Forms of civilization-state

pluralcivilization-states
alternative formcivilization state

Questions about civilization-state

What does civilization-state mean?
Civilization-state means a political entity (a state) associated with a particular civilization.
What part of speech is civilization-state?
Civilization-state is a noun.
What is the plural of civilization-state?
The plural of civilization-state is civilization-states.

Words near civilization-state in the dictionary

  1. civility
  2. civilité
  3. civilizability
  4. civilizable
  5. civilization
  6. civilization-state
  7. civilization-states
  8. civilizational
  9. civilizationally
  10. civilizationism
  11. civilizationist

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: civilization-state (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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