body politic

American  

noun

Political Science.

1. a people regarded as a political body under an organized government.

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body politic British  

noun

1. the people of a nation or the nation itself considered as a political entity; the state

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Etymology

Origin of body politic

1425–75; late Middle English bodi politik

Example Sentences

None of this is healthy for the body politic, though at least both sides are finally being brutally honest about their raw partisanship.

From The Wall Street Journal

"The body politic of America was so Christian and was so Protestant that our form and structure of government was built for the people that believed in Christ our Lord," Kirk said in 2024.

From BBC

In other words, what our body politic is facing today is not substantively new; it’s only perceptually new to those who’ve never before been subject to the whims of a place like Tallahassee.

From Salon

The Epstein scandal may prove to be the tie that binds — or, to extend the metaphor, the first political bloodletting that has universal appeal since Nixon was expelled from the body politic.

From Salon

We are affirmed in the knowledge that we are the body politic.

From Los Angeles Times