Dictionary
gov•ern•ment
Pronunciation: (guv'urn-munt, -ur-munt), [key]—
n.
1. the political direction and control exercised over the actions of the members, citizens, or inhabitants of communities, societies, and states; direction of the affairs of a state, community, etc.; political administration:
Government is necessary to the existence of civilized society.
2. the form or system of rule by which a state, community, etc., is governed:
monarchical government; episcopal government.
3. the governing body of persons in a state, community, etc.; administration.
4. a branch or service of the supreme authority of a state or nation, taken as representing the whole:
a dam built by the government.
5. (in some parliamentary systems, as that of the United Kingdom)
a. the particular group of persons forming the cabinet at any given time:
The Prime Minister has formed a new government.
b. the parliament along with the cabinet:
The government has fallen.
6. direction; control; management; rule:
the government of one's conduct.
7. a district governed; province.
8. See
political science.
9. Gram.the extablished usage that requires that one word in a sentence should cause another to be of a particular form:
the government of the verb by its subject. Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.
