city-state

American  

[sit-ee-steyt] / ˈsɪt iˌsteɪt /

noun

• city-states
  plural

1. a sovereign state consisting of an autonomous city and, especially historically, any dependent settlements or territories.

   The Corinthian order of architecture is named for its legendary origin in the ancient Greek city-state of Corinth.

   Singapore’s role in shaping global entrepreneurship has further strengthened that city-state's position in the world economy.

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city-state British  

noun

1. a state consisting of a sovereign city and its dependencies. Among the most famous are the great independent cities of the ancient world, such as Athens, Sparta, Carthage, Thebes, Corinth, and Rome

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• city-states
  plural

Etymology

Origin of city-state

First recorded in 1890–95

Explanation

A city-state is an independent city — and sometimes its surrounding land — which has its own government, completely separate from nearby countries. Monaco is a city-state. Today, there are only five city-states that are truly self-governing, but in the past this was more common. In fact, well-known cities such as Rome and Athens were city-states, and the entire country of Italy was made up of independent merchant city-states during the Renaissance. These days, government tends to be concentrated in a larger country, rather than split into small, sovereign cities.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

city-state city-states

U.S.-Iran peace talks are lifting hopes for a city-state that depends on outside money, but a full economic recovery is expected to be slow.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026

Located a short walk from Singapore's famous Botanic Gardens, the property sits in a prime district of the land-scarce city-state.

From BBC ● Jul. 2, 2026

Singapore Airlines should gain from the sporting event, after recently announcing a partnership with Southwest Airlines to connect travelers between the city-state and nearly 120 airports in the U.S. airline’s network.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 11, 2026

Alternate proposals would make Donnyland into an economic development zone — a city-state like Monaco on the French Mediterranean that could be semiautonomous.

From Salon ● Apr. 30, 2026

The Mexica were subordinated by a nearby city-state on the shore, and the tlatoani was forced to send Mexica men as conscripts for its wars.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

Patri Friedman, a software engineer and grandson of economist Milton Friedman, first tried building floating city-states, and then launched a fund to seed “startup cities.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 1, 2026

The region's city-states -- Ur, Uruk, and Lagash among them -- developed complex political and religious systems that became the blueprint for later societies.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 27, 2025

“Antigone” was performed during an uneasy respite from war with other Greek city-states.

From Salon ● Feb. 25, 2024

And the theater was used to help keep the coalition of city-states that made up ancient Greece from tearing one another apart for two centuries.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 21, 2023

Like medieval Italian city-states, Nudzahui principalities were rigidly stratified, with the king and a small group of kinspeople and noble advisers gobbling up much of the wealth and land.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann