Word.ws English Dictionary

shadow government

shadow government noun: a government that is prepared to take control in response to certain events, especially one made up of the leadership of the largest opposition party in parliament which would assume control should the ruling party be displaced in elections.

Noun

shadow government (plural shadow governments)

  1. A government that is prepared to take control in response to certain events, especially one made up of the leadership of the largest opposition party in parliament which would assume control should the ruling party be displaced in elections.
    • Meronyms: shadow cabinet, shadow minister
    • Cuba's two most important exile groups, after months of quarreling, met last week to form a shadow government dedicated to the liberation of their homeland.1961 March 31, “Getting Ready”, in Time Magazine, archived from the original on 25 Sep 2022, page 24
  2. A (real or conspiracy theorized) body of private individuals who exercise actual power behind the scenes instead of a country's or organization's public figures.

shadow government meaning in Indonesian

shadow government in Indonesian

government-in-waiting that is prepared to take control
pemerintah bayangan

Synonyms of shadow government

Forms of shadow government

pluralshadow governments

Origin of shadow government

The origin of such terms (e.g., shadow government, shadow cabinet, shadow minister, shadow portfolio) lies in the figurative metaphor of a shadow (shade) following its source object closely and in well-defined parallel. But conspiracy theorists have longed seized upon the way it sounds nefarious, as if it were meant to connote dark and sinister forces. This interpretation is also encouraged by disinformation purveyors seeking to sow societal disruption.

Questions about shadow government

What does shadow government mean?
Shadow government means a government that is prepared to take control in response to certain events, especially one made up of the leadership of the largest opposition party in parliament which would assume control should the ruling party be displaced in elections.
What is shadow government in Indonesian?
Shadow government in Indonesian is pemerintah bayangan. See Shadow government meaning in Indonesian.
What part of speech is shadow government?
Shadow government is a noun.
What is the plural of shadow government?
The plural of shadow government is shadow governments.

Words near shadow government in the dictionary

  1. shadow factory
  2. shadow fleet
  3. shadow fleets
  4. shadow gazer
  5. shadow gazers
  6. shadow government
  7. shadow governments
  8. shadow grass
  9. Shadow Hills
  10. shadow histories
  11. shadow history

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shadow government (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: “shadow government.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shadow_government. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.