federal state

federal state (plural federal states)

2. A sovereign state that is a federation.

   Antonyms: unitary state, confederation

   Near-synonyms: federation (usually synonymous); see also Thesaurus:federal country

   • How Canadians Govern Themselves[1], lop.parl.ca:

     The United States of America, Canada, Australia and Switzerland are all federal states. Federalism combines unity with diversity.

   • The Federal State of Austria | Austrian Parliament, parlament.gv.at[2]:

     The Republic of Austria is a Federal State composed of nine autonomous federal provinces.

4. A nonsovereign state that is part of a federation, especially part of Germany or Austria.
   • 2003, Stephen Merrett, Water for Agriculture[3]:

     Ceará is one of the federal states of Brazil and is located in the semi-arid northeast.

   • 2009, Stephan Huber, School Leadership - International Perspectives:

     New South Wales (NSW) is one of the six federal states of Australia.

   • 2020, OECD, Regulatory Governance of the Rail Sector in Mexico[4]:

     In this context, the integration of security committees in the federal states of Mexico with the highest incidence is promoted: Coahuila, Durango, State of Mexico, Michoacán, Nuevo León, Veracruz, ...

   • Federal States of Germany, deutschland.de[5]:

     Since reunification in 1990, the Federal Republic of Germany has had 16 rather than just eleven Länder or federal states, the five new states being Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia.

   • The State Governments — Austria, austria.org[6]:

     Administration in the Länder (provinces, or federal states) is the duty of the state governments, the Landesregierungen.

• Many speakers prescribe that this term be restricted to sense 1 and that sense 2 instead be referred to as federated state. Many other speakers either have not gotten that memo or disregard it. The German states seem to be much more often referred to as federal states than federated states.^[1][2] The situation with Austrian states is similar; for Austria, the term federal province also sees some use.^[3][4]

• “federal state”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• Federal states - ScienceDirect by Walter Rudolf
• German federal states, iamexpat.de
• Wikidata:federated state
• Wikidata:state of Austria
• Wikidata:federated state of Germany