soviet

CEFRB2

/ˈsəʊvi.ət/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A council of workers or soldiers in the former Soviet system.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    Alternative letter-case form of Soviet (pertaining to the Soviet Union)

Examples

  • Communism is the system practiced in the Soviet Union.

  • He studied the political structure of the former Soviet Union.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
4
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5

Also pronounced

  • /ˈsɒv.jət/
  • /ˈsoʊvi.ət/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. Pertaining to or resembling a soviet (council).

  2. A workers' council, an institution first formed during the 1905 Russian Revolution and then instituted as the main form of communist government at all levels in the Soviet Union; by extension, a similar organization in early Chinese communism and elsewhere.

More examples

In context

  • The news was all about the collapse of the Soviet Union.

  • Kratochvil, Jedlicka, Safar, Kubes and Vasata, who always took an interest in politics, set up a soviet in the last wagon and uncoupled it from the rest of the train in the night.

  • An engineer who is not very soviet in his convictions is the hero.

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The blank was the main council that governed the local area in the USSR.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

Borrowed from Russian сове́т (sovét, “council”), from Old Russian borrowed from Old Church Slavonic съвѣтъ (sŭvětŭ, “advice”). Compounded from съ- (sŭ-) + вѣтъ (větŭ, “agreement”), from Proto-Slavic *větъ (“council, talk”). Related words include наве́т (navét), изве́т (izvét), отве́т (otvét), приве́т (privét), обе́т (obét), ве́че (véče), отвеча́ть (otvečátʹ), отве́тить (otvétitʹ), завеща́ть (zaveščátʹ), and совещаться (soveščatʹsja). Probably cognate with Polish witać (“to welcome”).