n. 1. a. A political order whose head of state is not a monarch and in modern times is usually a president. b. A nation that has such a political order. 2. a. A political order in which the supreme power lies in a body of citizens who are entitled to vote for officers and representatives responsible to them. b. A nation that has such a political order. 3. often Republic A specific republican government of a nation: the Fourth Republic of France. 4. An autonomous or partially autonomous political and territorial unit belonging to a sovereign federation. 5. A group of people working as equals in the same sphere or field: the republic of letters. [French république, from Old French, from Latin rēspūblica : rēs, thing; see rē- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots + pūblica, feminine of pūblicus, of the people; see PUBLIC.] |
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