an alliance between persons, parties, states, etc., for some purpose.
a group of persons, parties, states, etc., united by such a confederacy.
a combination of persons for unlawful purposes; conspiracy.
the Confederacy. Confederate States of America.
a union or combination of peoples, states, etc; alliance; league
a combination of groups or individuals for unlawful purposes
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English confederacie, from Anglo-French, equivalent to Late Latin confoederāt(us) “united” (past participle of confoederāre “to unite in a league”; see confederate) + -ia -y 3 ( def. )
A confederacy is a political union. The most famous American confederacy consisted of the southern states who fought the northern states in the American Civil War. When you confederate — that is, join together for a common purpose — what you get is a confederacy. Americans will never forget a well-known but ill-fated confederacy, the Confederate States of America: an unrecognized state that formed in 1861, uniting the slave states that left the United States at the time of the Civil War. Any such political union could be called a confederacy (or a federation). When you see the word confederacy, think of togetherness in the political realm.
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In the confederacy, Georgia enacted a similar 15-day grace period, while Florida law provided an extra 20 days.
From Slate ● Mar. 13, 2026
When Sam Nia and his wife arrived at their hotel in Nuuk, they were welcomed into a confederacy of stranded tourists whose flights had been unable to get out for days.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2025
Known as “Lament for Confederation,” it was a landmark moment in First Nations history, calling out the meaning of the confederacy and the impact of colonization on Indigenous peoples.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 5, 2024
But without some agreed-upon mechanism for determining whether such a violation has happened, there is effectively no difference between Radan’s version and the "mere confederacy during pleasure" Story describes.
From Salon ● Dec. 16, 2023
In Hunt’s wake the Patuxet community raged, as did the rest of the Wampanoag confederacy and the Nauset.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
Texas became a U.S. state in 1845 and seceded from the union to join the Confederacy at the start of the Civil War.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 2, 2026
At a subsequent meeting of the city’s Commission on History, Dale Theiling, one of the commissioners, explained that Charleston had agreed to release the monument to the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 4, 2026
Back then, the two sides were called the Union and the Confederacy.
From Salon ● May 1, 2026
Walker’s work was the only transformed statue out of the nearly dozen decommissioned statues related to the Confederacy featured in the “Monuments” exhibition.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 24, 2026
The Haudenosaunee Confederacy, sometimes referred to as the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy, developed in what is now the northeastern part of the United States.
From "An Indigenous People’s History of the United States" by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
Among township societies such as the Iroquois, groups of towns joined to form political confederacies.
From Textbooks ● Dec. 14, 2022
In the founding fathers' day, the possible confederacies most spoken of were the four Eastern states, the four "middle" states and the five Southern states.
From Salon ● May 10, 2020
They also coalesced in larger confederacies when necessary; Europeans would know them as Creeks or Choctaws.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 18, 2018
Without Napoleon Europe could have remained some rough confederacies of fiefdoms, each forever squabbling, no unified Germany or Italy, Russia too big to succeed fractures into more manageable regions, etc.
From New York Times ● Nov. 6, 2017
The varying confederacies and hegemonies are the nearest approach to anything of the kind.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 12, Slice 3 "Gordon, Lord George" to "Grasses" by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
