Word.ws English Dictionary

withering away of the state

withering away of the state noun: the proposed situation where, in a classless society, people govern themselves as a commune without needing a government or law enforcement.

Noun

withering away of the state (uncountable)

  1. (Marxism) The proposed situation where, in a classless society, people govern themselves as a commune without needing a government or law enforcement.

Origin of withering away of the state

Coined by Friedrich Engels in 1878 for his work, "Anti-Dühring", from Calque of German der Staat wird nicht „abgeschafft“, er stirbt ab (“the state is not "abolished", it atrophies”)

Questions about withering away of the state

What does withering away of the state mean?
Withering away of the state means the proposed situation where, in a classless society, people govern themselves as a commune without needing a government or law enforcement.
What part of speech is withering away of the state?
Withering away of the state is a noun.

Words near withering away of the state in the dictionary

  1. withereth
  2. Witherian
  3. withering
  4. withering abalone syndrome
  5. withering away
  6. withering away of the state
  7. withering on the vine
  8. witheringly
  9. witherings
  10. Witherington
  11. Witheringtons

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: withering away of the 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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