"body politic" meaning in English

See body politic in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: bodies politic [plural]
Etymology: From body + politic (postpositive adjective), calque of Latin corpus polīticum. Etymology templates: {{af|en|body|politic|pos2=postpositive adjective}} body + politic (postpositive adjective), {{cal|en|la|corpus polīticum|nocap=1}} calque of Latin corpus polīticum Head templates: {{en-noun|bodies politic}} body politic (plural bodies politic)
  1. (figurative) The collective body of a nation or state as politically organized. Tags: figuratively Categories (topical): Collectives Translations (collective body as politically organized): valtioruumis (Finnish), corps politique [masculine] (French), Gemeinwesen [neuter] (German), samhällskropp [common-gender] (Swedish), gwladwriaeth [feminine] (Welsh)
    Sense id: en-body_politic-en-noun-Q0kAZBIJ Disambiguation of Collectives: 58 25 17 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English terms where the adjective follows the noun, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with Finnish translations, Terms with French translations, Terms with German translations, Terms with Swedish translations, Terms with Welsh translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 63 19 18 Disambiguation of English terms where the adjective follows the noun: 57 30 13 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 76 17 8 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 66 16 18 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 86 9 5 Disambiguation of Terms with Finnish translations: 79 16 5 Disambiguation of Terms with French translations: 84 12 4 Disambiguation of Terms with German translations: 82 12 6 Disambiguation of Terms with Swedish translations: 81 15 4 Disambiguation of Terms with Welsh translations: 84 12 4 Disambiguation of 'collective body as politically organized': 69 28 3
  2. (figurative) The collective body of a nation or state as exercising political functions. Tags: figuratively Translations (collective body as exercising political functions): Staatswesen [neuter] (German), gwladwriaeth [feminine] (Welsh)
    Sense id: en-body_politic-en-noun-y215ZtFg Disambiguation of 'collective body as exercising political functions': 31 66 3
  3. (archaic) A corporation. Tags: archaic
    Sense id: en-body_politic-en-noun-nYbPWCsO
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: body politique [obsolete]

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

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  "etymology_text": "From body + politic (postpositive adjective), calque of Latin corpus polīticum.",
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          "ref": "1651, Thomas Hobbes, “Of Systems Subject Political and Private”, in Leviathan, or The Matter, Forme, & Power of a Common-wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civill, London: […] [William Wilson] for Andrew Crooke, […], →OCLC, 2nd part (Of Common-wealth), page 115:",
          "text": "In Bodies Politique the power of the Repreſentative is alwaies Limited: And that which preſcribeth the Limits thereof, is the Power Soveraign.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1951, Hannah Arendt, “The Jews, the Nation-state, and the Birth of Antisemitism”, in The Origins of Totalitarianism (A Harvest/HBJ Book), new edition, San Diego, Calif., New York, N.Y.: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, published 1973, →ISBN, part 1 (Antisemitism), page 14:",
          "text": "In contrast to all other groups, the Jews were defined and their position determined by the body politic.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2014 February 7, Kathryn Harrison, “The Body Politic”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:",
          "text": "While most historians of the period dissect the body politic, Whitelock doesn’t waste time in the halls of Parliament. Instead, she hastens straight to the boudoir of the queen who chose celibacy as a means of wielding power.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
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        "The collective body of a nation or state as politically organized."
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      "id": "en-body_politic-en-noun-Q0kAZBIJ",
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        "(figurative) The collective body of a nation or state as politically organized."
      ],
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        {
          "_dis1": "69 28 3",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "collective body as politically organized",
          "word": "valtioruumis"
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          "_dis1": "69 28 3",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "collective body as politically organized",
          "tags": [
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          "word": "corps politique"
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          "_dis1": "69 28 3",
          "code": "de",
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          "sense": "collective body as politically organized",
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          "_dis1": "69 28 3",
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        },
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          "_dis1": "69 28 3",
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          "sense": "collective body as politically organized",
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        "(figurative) The collective body of a nation or state as exercising political functions."
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          "code": "de",
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          "sense": "collective body as exercising political functions",
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        "(archaic) A corporation."
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      "_dis1": "48 41 11",
      "tags": [
        "obsolete"
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      "word": "body politique"
    }
  ],
  "word": "body politic"
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          "ref": "1651, Thomas Hobbes, “Of Systems Subject Political and Private”, in Leviathan, or The Matter, Forme, & Power of a Common-wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civill, London: […] [William Wilson] for Andrew Crooke, […], →OCLC, 2nd part (Of Common-wealth), page 115:",
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          "ref": "1951, Hannah Arendt, “The Jews, the Nation-state, and the Birth of Antisemitism”, in The Origins of Totalitarianism (A Harvest/HBJ Book), new edition, San Diego, Calif., New York, N.Y.: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, published 1973, →ISBN, part 1 (Antisemitism), page 14:",
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        "(figurative) The collective body of a nation or state as politically organized."
      ],
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        "The collective body of a nation or state as exercising political functions."
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        "(figurative) The collective body of a nation or state as exercising political functions."
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      "word": "body politique"
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    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "collective body as politically organized",
      "word": "valtioruumis"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "collective body as politically organized",
      "tags": [
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      ],
      "word": "corps politique"
    },
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      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "collective body as politically organized",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "Gemeinwesen"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "collective body as politically organized",
      "tags": [
        "common-gender"
      ],
      "word": "samhällskropp"
    },
    {
      "code": "cy",
      "lang": "Welsh",
      "sense": "collective body as politically organized",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "gwladwriaeth"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "collective body as exercising political functions",
      "tags": [
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    },
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      "word": "gwladwriaeth"
    }
  ],
  "word": "body politic"
}

Download raw JSONL data for body politic meaning in English (4.2kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-02-08 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-02-02 using wiktextract (f90d964 and 9dbd323). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.