# federal

Pronunciation: say "FED-uh-ruhl" /ˈfɛdəɹəl/

## Adjective

1. Belonging to or controlled by the national government of a country with a federal system, rather than its states, provinces, counties, or towns.
   - Simple: Belonging to a nation's central government, not to a state, county, or city.
   - _Federal agencies oversee programs that operate across all fifty states._
   - _The dispute eventually moved from a state court to a federal one._
2. Of a system of government: uniting states or regions under a central authority while each retains powers to govern some of its own affairs.
   - Simple: Having states or regions that join under one central government but still run their own local affairs.
   - _Germany's federal structure gives its states wide powers over education and policing._
   - _Some reformers argue that a federal model would ease tensions between the capital and the regions._

## Noun

3. An agent employed by a federal government, working for the national level of authority rather than for a state, province, or city. *(US)*
   - Simple: A person who works as an agent for a country's national government, not for a state or city.
4. A soldier of the Union, or Northern, army during the American Civil War. *(historical, US)*
   - Simple: A soldier who fought for the North in the American Civil War.
   - _The federals held the ridge against repeated Confederate charges._
   - _Each federal carried rations for three days on the long march._
5. A person who advocates federation: the union of separate states under a central government.
   - Simple: A person who supports states joining under a shared central government while keeping some powers of their own.

## Adjective

6. Founded on a compact between parties, especially nations, or having to do with a league or treaty. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: Based on an agreement or deal between groups, especially between countries.

## Other meanings

- (adjective) Intrusive or nosy; prying into and exposing someone else's private affairs.
- (adjective) Relating to covenant theology, the Christian framework that interprets Scripture through a series of covenants between God and humanity.

## Origin

It goes back to Latin foedus ("covenant, league, treaty, or alliance"), whose stem foeder- gave French fédéral, the immediate source of the English word.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/federal (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).