Meanings
plural polystates
- A set of separate political units that overlap and exist under a central government.
Anthrostates have rules relevant to their members, while polystates have rules relevant to the interaction of anthrostates and their members.
2014 March 22, Rick Weber, “Polystate: Book 2”, in Notes on Liberty, archived from the original on 23 Jun 20211 more example
Weinersmith, who is best known for his webcomic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, describes the polystate as a geopolitical entity in which multiple overlapping states exist — but each “state” consists of citizens who have agreed to the laws of a single non-geographic state; typical geographically-bound nations, or traditional “geostates”, would be replaced by “polystates”, which are collections of “anthrostates”.
2014 June 12, George Dvorsky, “12 Futuristic Forms of Government That Could One Day Rule the World”, in Gizmodo, archived from the original on 24 Jul 2021
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*pleh₁-
- Proto-Indo-European*polh₁ús
- Ancient Greekπολῠ́ς (polŭ́s)
- Englishpoly-
- Proto-Indo-European*steh₂-
- Proto-Indo-European*stéh₂-tu-s ~ *sth₂-téw-s
- Proto-Italic*status
- Latinstatu
- Old Frenchestat
- Middle Englishstat
- Englishstate
- Englishpolystate
From poly- + state, coined by author Zach Weinersmith.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
polystate. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/polystate
“polystate.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/polystate. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “polystate,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/polystate.
Source: polystate on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.