Word.ws English Dictionary

state police

state police noun: the police force belonging to the state (subnational) government, as contrasted with federal, county, or municipal law enforcement.

state police: the police force belonging to the state (subnational) government, as contrasted with federal,...
Image: California Highway Patrol, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

state police (usually uncountable, plural state polices)

  1. (Australia, US, usually) The police force belonging to the state (subnational) government, as contrasted with federal, county, or municipal law enforcement.
    Synonyms:
    smokies, state troopers, state patrol
  2. (usually) Outside the USA or Australia, the national police, i.e. the police force belonging to the national (state) government.
    Synonyms:
    national police

Synonyms of state police

Forms of state police

pluralstate polices

Questions about state police

What does state police mean?
State police means the police force belonging to the state (subnational) government, as contrasted with federal, county, or municipal law enforcement.
What part of speech is state police?
State police is a noun.
What is the plural of state police?
The plural of state police is state polices.

Words near state police in the dictionary

  1. state ownership
  2. state park
  3. state parks
  4. state pattern
  5. state patterns
  6. state police
  7. state police officer
  8. state police officers
  9. state polices
  10. state religion
  11. state religions

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: state police (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-state police.ogg.

Cite this entry: “state police.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/state_police. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.