# republic

Pronunciation: say "ri-PUB-lik" /ɹɪˈpʌb.lɪk/

## Noun

1. A state in which power rests with the people or their elected representatives rather than with a monarch or emperor.
   - Simple: A country led by elected officials instead of a king or queen.
   - _After the last emperor abdicated, the country was reorganized as a republic._
   - _Newly independent republics across the region replaced colonial governors with elected presidents._
2. A self-governing territory forming one of the constituent units of a federal state, especially of the former Soviet Union or Yugoslavia, or of present-day Russia, often based on a particular ethnic or national group.
   - Simple: A part of a larger federal country, with its own government, such as in the former Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, or Russia.
   - _Bashkortostan is a republic with its own constitution and elected head._
   - _Russia's republics differ from its oblasts in having a titular nationality._

## Noun

3. A state in which the executive and legislative branches of government are kept separate, whether or not it is a monarchy. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: A country where the lawmakers and the rulers are kept separate, even if it has a king.

## Origin

Latin rēspūblica joined rēs ("thing") and pūblica ("public"), so it literally meant "the public thing." English took the word from Middle French republique.

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