polity

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   shrewd or crafty management of public affairs

   we was innocent of stratagems and polity

2. 2
   noun

   Organizational structure and governance, especially of a state or a religion.

   Church polity was a topic of fierce dispute in 17th-century Britain.

3. 3
   noun

   A politically organized unit, especially a nation of people, a class or ingroup that governs it, or the state ruled thereby.

   New polities emerged in Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire.

4. 4
   noun

   a politically organized unit

5. 5
   noun

   the form of government of a social organization

Etymology

From Middle French politie, from Latin polītīa, from Ancient Greek πολιτεία (politeía, “polity, policy, the state”). Doublet of police, policy, and polis (“police”).