Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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

The ancient Greek mindset, curious and adaptive, owes much to living amid hundreds of neighboring city-states with distinct cultures.

From The Wall Street Journal • Aug. 29, 2025

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

From Salon • Feb. 25, 2024

Prior to that final battle, Japan had been a confederation of warring city-states and provinces, he said.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 20, 2023

For much of the last century most Mayanists believed that at its height—200 to 900 a.d., roughly speaking—the Maya realm was divided into a hugger-mugger of more or less equivalent city-states.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann