1. [n]  
2. [n]  the federal department that sets and maintains foreign policies; "the Department of State was created in 1789"
3. [n]  a politically organized body of people under a single government; "the state has elected a new president"; "African nations"; "students who had come to the nation's capitol"; "the country's largest manufacturer"; "an industrialized land"
4. [n]  the group of people comprising the government of a sovereign state; "the state has lowered its income tax"
5. [n]  
6. [n]  the territory occupied by one of the constituent administrative districts of a nation; "his state is in the deep south"
7. [n]  (informal) a state of depression or agitation; "he was in such a state you just couldn't reason with him"
8. [n]  (chemistry) the three traditional states of matter are solids (fixed shape and volume) and liquids (fixed volume and shaped by the container) and gases (filling the container); "the solid state of water is called ice"
9. [adj]  in the service of the community or nation; "state security"
10. [adj]  supported and operated by the government of a state; "a state university"
11. [v]  put before; "I submit to you that the accused is guilty"
12. [v]  express in words; "He said that he wanted to marry her"; "tell me what is bothering you"; "state your opinion"; "state your name"
13. [v]  indicate through a symbol, formula, etc.; "Can you express this distance in kilometers?"

1. \State\, n. [OE. stat, OF. estat, F. ['e]tat, fr. L.
   status a standing, position, fr. stare, statum, to stand. See
   {Stand}, and cf. {Estate}, {Status}.]
   1. The circumstances or condition of a being or thing at any
      given time.
   
            State is a term nearly synonymous with ``mode,'' but
            of a meaning more extensive, and is not exclusively
            limited to the mutable and contingent. --Sir W.
                                                  Hamilton.
   
            Declare the past and present state of things.
                                                  --Dryden.
   
            Keep the state of the question in your eye. --Boyle.
   
   2. Rank; condition; quality; as, the state of honor.
   
            Thy honor, state, and seat is due to me. --Shak.
   
   3. Condition of prosperity or grandeur; wealthy or prosperous
      circumstances; social importance.
   
            She instructed him how he should keep state, and yet
            with a modest sense of his misfortunes. --Bacon.
   
            Can this imperious lord forget to reign, Quit all
            his state, descend, and serve again?  --Pope.
   
   4. Appearance of grandeur or dignity; pomp.
   
            Where least og state there most of love is shown.
                                                  --Dryden.
   
   5. A chair with a canopy above it, often standing on a dais;
      a seat of dignity; also, the canopy itself. [Obs.]
   
            His high throne, . . . under state Of richest
            texture spread.                       --Milton.
   
            When he went to court, he used to kick away the
            state, and sit down by his prince cheek by jowl.
                                                  --Swift.
   
   6. Estate, possession. [Obs.] --Daniel.
   
            Your state, my lord, again in yours.  --Massinger.
   
   7. A person of high rank. [Obs.] --Latimer.
   
   8. Any body of men united by profession, or constituting a
      community of a particular character; as, the civil and
      ecclesiastical states, or the lords spiritual and temporal
      and the commons, in Great Britain. Cf. {Estate}, n., 6.
   
   9. The principal persons in a government.
   
            The bold design Pleased highly those infernal
            states.                               --Milton.
   
   10. The bodies that constitute the legislature of a country;
       as, the States-general of Holland.
   
   11. A form of government which is not monarchial, as a
       republic. [Obs.]
   
             Well monarchies may own religion's name, But states
             are atheists in their very fame.     --Dryden.
   
   12. A political body, or body politic; the whole body of
       people who are united one government, whatever may be the
       form of the government; a nation.
   
             Municipal law is a rule of conduct prescribed by
             the supreme power in a state.        --Blackstone.
   
             The Puritans in the reign of Mary, driven from
             their homes, sought an asylum in Geneva, where they
             found a state without a king, and a church without
             a bishop.                            --R. Choate.
   
   13. In the United States, one of the commonwealth, or bodies
       politic, the people of which make up the body of the
       nation, and which, under the national constitution,
       stands in certain specified relations with the national
       government, and are invested, as commonwealth, with full
       power in their several spheres over all matters not
       expressly inhibited.
   
   Note: The term State, in its technical sense, is used in
         distinction from the federal system, i. e., the
         government of the United States.
   
   14. Highest and stationary condition, as that of maturity
       between growth and decline, or as that of crisis between
       the increase and the abating of a disease; height; acme.
       [Obs.]
   
   Note: When state is joined with another word, or used
         adjectively, it denotes public, or what belongs to the
         community or body politic, or to the government; also,
         what belongs to the States severally in the American
         Union; as, state affairs; state policy; State laws of
         Iowa.
   
   {Nascent state}. (Chem.) See under {Nascent}.
   
   {Secretary of state}. See {Secretary}, n., 3.
   
   {State barge}a royal barge, or a barge belonging to a
      government.
   
   {State bed}, an elaborately carved or decorated bed.
   
   {State carriage}, a highly decorated carriage for officials
      going in state, or taking part in public processions.
   
   {State paper}, an official paper relating to the interests or
      government of a state. --Jay.
   
   {State prison}, a public prison or penitentiary; -- called
      also {State's prison}.
   
   {State prisoner}, one is confinement, or under arrest, for a
      political offense.
   
   {State rights}, or {States' rights}, the rights of the
      several independent States, as distinguished from the
      rights of the Federal government. It has been a question
      as to what rights have been vested in the general
      government. [U.S.]
   
   {State's evidence}. See {Probator}, 2, and under {Evidence}.
   
   
   {State sword}, a sword used on state occasions, being borne
      before a sovereign by an attendant of high rank.
   
   {State trial}, a trial of a person for a political offense.
   
   
   {States of the Church}. See under {Ecclesiastical}.
   
   Syn: {State}, {Situation}, {Condition}.
   
   Usage: State is the generic term, and denotes in general the
          mode in which a thing stands or exists. The situation
          of a thing is its state in reference to external
          objects and influences; its condition is its internal
          state, or what it is in itself considered. Our
          situation is good or bad as outward things bear
          favorably or unfavorably upon us; our condition is
          good or bad according to the state we are actually in
          as respects our persons, families, property, and other
          things which comprise our sources of enjoyment.
   
                I do not, brother, Infer as if I thought my
                sister's state Secure without all doubt or
                controversy.                      --Milton.
   
                We hoped to enjoy with ease what, in our
                situation, might be called the luxuries of life.
                                                  --Cock.
   
                And, O, what man's condition can be worse Than
                his whom plenty starves and blessings curse?
                                                  --Cowley.
   
   

2. \State\, a.
   1. Stately. [Obs.] --Spenser.
   
   2. Belonging to the state, or body politic; public.
   
   

3. \State\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Stated}; p. pr. & vb. n.
   {Stating}.]
   1. To set; to settle; to establish. [R.]
   
            I myself, though meanest stated, And in court now
            almost hated.                         --Wither.
   
            Who calls the council, states the certain day.
                                                  --Pope.
   
   2. To express the particulars of; to set down in detail or in
      gross; to represent fully in words; to narrate; to recite;
      as, to state the facts of a case, one's opinion, etc.
   
   {To state it}. To assume state or dignity. [Obs.] ``Rarely
      dressed up, and taught to state it.'' --Beau. & Fl.
   
   

4. \State\, n.
   A statement; also, a document containing a statement. [R.]
   --Sir W. Scott.
   
   

How something is; its configuration, attributes, condition, or information content. The state of a system is usually temporary (i.e. it changes with time) and volatile (i.e. it will be lost or reset to some initial state if the system is switched off).

A state may be considered to be a point in some space of all possible states. A simple example is a light, which is either on or off. A complex example is the electrical activation in a human brain while solving a problem.

In computing and related fields, states, as in the light example, are often modelled as being discrete (rather than continuous) and the transition from one state to another is considered to be instantaneous. Another (related) property of a system is the number of possible states it may exhibit. This may be finite or infinite. A common model for a system with a finite number of discrete state is a finite state machine.

[jargon file]