confederacy

CEFRB2

/kənˈfɛdəɹəsi/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A group of states or people joined for a purpose.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    A state where the sovereign constituent units delegate their authority to the centre. As opposed to a federation, where the central and regional governments are each equal and sovereign in their own sphere.

Examples

  • Maratha polity consisted of a decentralised confederacy of various states.

  • The Maratha Empire could just as easily be called the Maratha Confederacy.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
4
Parts of speech
1
Citations
1

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings
  1. Specifically, an instance of a decentralized governing structure among the indigenous peoples of North America.

  2. An alliance.

More examples

In context
  • The Blackfoot, Iroquois, and Sioux peoples all were governed as confederacies. There were also multi-ethnic confederacies, such as the Iron Confederacy made up of the Plains Cree, Assiniboine, Stoney, and Saulteaux.

  • Christmas of 1862 had been a happy one for Atlanta, for the whole South. The Confederacy had scored a smashing victory at Fredericksburg and the Yankee dead and wounded were counted in the thousands.

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

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The nobles formed a secret blank to overthrow the unpopular king.

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Nearby

Origin

noun

From Middle English confederacie, from Anglo-Norman confederacie, from Latin cōnfoederātiō. Doublet of confederation.