republic

noun Etymology: French république, from Middle French republique, from Latin respublica, from res thing, wealth + publica, feminine of publicus public — more at real, public Date: 1604 1. a. (1) a government having a chief of state who is not a monarch and who in modern times is usually a president (2) a political unit (as a nation) having such a form of government b. (1) a government in which supreme power resides in a body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by elected officers and representatives responsible to them and governing according to law (2) a political unit (as a nation) having such a form of government c. a usually specified republican government of a political unit <

the French Fourth Republic

> 2. a body of persons freely engaged in a specified activity <

the republic of letters

> 3. a constituent political and territorial unit of the former nations of Czechoslovakia, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or Yugoslavia