semi-state

adjective

state-owned but managed independently along commercial lines

Meanings

adjectivesemi-state (not comparable)

alternative semi state · alternative semi-State

  1. Irelandnot comparablestate-owned but managed independently along commercial lines

    TAXPAYERS are shelling out more than €2m annually to pay for the salaries of 10 high-profile CEOs employed in commercial semi-state bodies.

    2007 October 29, Patricia McDonagh, “Top 10 bosses in semi-state firms cost total of €2m a year”, in Irish Independent
    1 more example

    I think it would be agreed by all that in the last ten or 15 years we have seen a remarkable growth of these State and semi-State companies, by which I mean companies in which our Minister for Finance holds shares and very often holds the dominating number of shares.

    1950 March 2, Edward Richards-Orpen, State and Semi-State Companies—Motion. Seanad Éireann debates Vol.37 No.9 p.5 c.692
  2. not comparableceremonial, but somewhat less ornate, formal, or prestigious than would be classed as "state"

    The wedding will be what was termed a "semi-state" occasion.

    2010 November 24, Stephen Bates, “Royal wedding set to be a 'semi-state occasion' at Westminster Abbey”, in The Guardian
    3 more examples

    There now remains the fourth side of the square, which is devoted to the state and semi-state carriages. The semi-state carriages, eleven in number, are chiefly of modern make.

    1896, Cassell's Family Magazine, page 700

    Soon a full-state carriage arrived, followed by two semi-state carriages, [...]

    1940, Larz Anderson, “An Embassy to Japan”, in Letters and Journals of a Diplomat, Fleming H. Revell, page 380

    These Semi-State Rooms are among the most richly decorated interiors in the Castle and are used by The Queen for official entertaining.

    a. 2017, Royal Collection Trust, "Windsor Castle > The Semi-State Rooms" (website accessed 19 Oct 2017)
  3. Marxismnot comparableThe state after the socialist revolution, which is withering away in the process of eliminating class antagonisms.
    1 more example

    Engels says that, in seizing state power, the proletariat thereby “abolishes the state as state". It is not done to ponder over the meaning of this. Generally, it is either ignored altogether, or is considered to be something in the nature of “Hegelian weakness” on Engels’ part. As a matter of fact, however, these words briefly express the experience of one of the greatest proletarian revolutions, the Paris Commune of 1871, of which we shall speak in greater detail in its proper place. As a matter of fact, Engels speaks here of the proletariat revolution “abolishing” the bourgeois state, while the words about the state withering away refer to the remnants of the proletarian state after the socialist revolution. According to Engels, the bourgeois state does not “wither away”, but is “abolished” by the proletariat in the course of the revolution. What withers away after this revolution is the proletarian state or semi-state.

    1918, V. I. Lenin, “Class Society and the State”, in The State and Revolution, The “Withering Away” of the State, and Violent Revolution (section 4)

Origin

Translations

Greek μισοκράτος
  • μισοκράτος (misokrátos)the state in socialism
Cite this entry
APA

semi-state. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/semi-state

MLA

“semi-state.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/semi-state. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “semi-state,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/semi-state.

Source: semi-state on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.