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Thing vs State - What's the difference?

thing | state |

As a noun thing

is (chiefly|historical) a public assembly or judicial council in a germanic country.

As a verb state is

.

thing

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • That which is considered to exist as a separate entity, object, quality or concept.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-21, author=(Oliver Burkeman)
  • , volume=189, issue=2, page=48, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= The tao of tech , passage=The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about […], or offering services that let you […], "share the things you love with the world" and so on. But the real way to build a successful online business is to be better than your rivals at undermining people's control of their own attention.}}
  • A word, symbol, sign, or other referent that can be used to refer to any entity.
  • An individual object or distinct entity.
  • (informal) Something that is normal or generally recognised.
  • (legal) Whatever can be owned.
  • The latest fad or fashion.
  • (in the plural) Clothes, possessions or equipment.
  • (informal) A unit or container, usually containing edible goods.
  • (informal) A problem, dilemma, or complicating factor.
  • (slang) A penis.
  • * 1959 , , (Naked Lunch) , 50th anniversary edition (2009), p. 126:
  • “Oh Gertie it’s true. It’s all true. They’ve got a horrid gash instead of a thrilling thing .”
  • A living being or creature.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Revenge of the nerds , passage=Think of banking today and the image is of grey-suited men in towering skyscrapers. Its future, however, is being shaped in converted warehouses and funky offices in San Francisco, New York and London, where bright young things in jeans and T-shirts huddle around laptops, sipping lattes or munching on free food.}}
  • That which matters; the crux.
  • * 1914 , Eugene Gladstone O'Neill, The Movie Man] [playscript:
  • Don’t forget to have Gomez postpone that shooting thing . (in reference to the execution of Fernandez)
  • (chiefly, historical) A public assembly or judicial council in a Germanic country.
  • * 1974 , Jón Jóhannesson, A History of the Old Icelandic Commonwealth: Íslendinga Saga , translated by Haraldur Bessason, page 46:
  • In accordance with Old Germanic custom men came to the thing fully armed, [...]
  • * 1974', Jakob Benediktsson, ''Landnám og upphaf allsherjarríkis'', in ''Saga Íslands'', quoted in '''1988 by Jesse L. Byock in ''Medieval Iceland: Society, Sagas, and Power , page 85:
  • The goðar'' seem both to have received payment of ''thing-fararkaup from those who stayed home and at the same time compensated those who went to the thing , and it cannot be seen whether they had any profit from these transactions.
  • * 1988 , Jesse L. Byock, Medieval Iceland: Society, Sagas, and Power , page 59:
  • All Icelandic things were skap-thing , meaning that they were governed by established procedure and met at regular legally designated intevals at predetermined meeting places.

    Quotations

    * 1611 — (King James Version of the Bible), 1:1 *: Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us...

    Synonyms

    * stuff (uncountable equivalent) * item * yoke (Ireland)

    Derived terms

    * anything * bright young thing * everything * here's the thing * nothing * see things * something * sweet young thing * swing of things * the thing is * thingal * thingamajig * thinger * thinghood * thingly * thingness * thingo * thingy *

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (rare) To express as a thing; to reify.
  • Statistics

    *

    state

    English

    Noun

    (wikipedia state) (en noun)
  • A polity.
  • # Any sovereign polity; a government.
  • #* 20C , (Albert Einstein), as quoted by Virgil Henshaw in Albert Einstein: Philosopher Scientist (1949)
  • Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it.
  • #* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=David Simpson
  • , volume=188, issue=26, page=36, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Fantasy of navigation , passage=It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: […];  […]; or perhaps to muse on the irrelevance of the borders that separate nation states and keep people from understanding their shared environment.}}
  • # A political division of a federation retaining a degree of autonomy, for example one of the fifty United States. See also Province.
  • # (obsolete) A form of government other than a monarchy.
  • #* (John Dryden) (1631-1700)
  • Well monarchies may own religion's name, / But states are atheists in their very fame.
  • # (anthropology) A society larger than a tribe. A society large enough to form a state in the sense of a government.
  • A condition; a set of circumstances applying at any given time.
  • * (John Dryden) (1631-1700)
  • Declare the past and present state of things.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=8 , passage=I corralled the judge, and we started off across the fields, in no very mild state of fear of that gentleman's wife, whose vigilance was seldom relaxed.}}
  • # (computing) The stable condition of a processor during a particular clock cycle.
  • # (computing) The set of all parameters relevant to a computation.
  • # (computing) The values of all parameters at some point in a computation.
  • # (sciences) The physical property of matter as solid, liquid, gas or plasma.
  • # (obsolete) Highest and stationary condition, as that of maturity between growth and decline, or as that of crisis between the increase and the abating of a disease; height; acme.
  • High social standing or circumstance.
  • # Pomp, ceremony, or dignity.
  • # Rank; condition; quality.
  • #* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • Thy honour, state , and seat is due to me.
  • # Condition of prosperity or grandeur; wealthy or prosperous circumstances; social importance.
  • #* (Francis Bacon) (1561-1626)
  • She instructed him how he should keep state , and yet with a modest sense of his misfortunes.
  • #* (Alexander Pope) (1688-1744)
  • Can this imperious lord forget to reign, / Quit all his state , descend, and serve again?
  • # A chair with a canopy above it, often standing on a dais; a seat of dignity; also, the canopy itself.
  • #* (John Milton) (1608-1674)
  • His high throne,under state / Of richest texture spread.
  • #* (Jonathan Swift) (1667–1745)
  • When he went to court, he used to kick away the state , and sit down by his prince cheek by jowl.
  • # (obsolete) A great person, a dignitary; a lord or prince.
  • #* 1644 , (John Milton), (Aeropagitica) :
  • They who to States and Governours of the Commonwealth direct their Speech.
  • # (obsolete) Estate, possession.
  • (Daniel)
  • #* (Philip Massinger) (1583-1640)
  • Your state , my lord, again is yours.
  • (mathematics, stochastic processes) An element of the range of the random variables that define a random process.
  • Derived terms

    * absolute state * blue state * bound state * buffer state * cat state * change of state * chief of state * city state * civilization-state * client state * cluster state * continental state * convention state * deep state * end state * excited state * failed state * federal state * feudatory state * flyover state * fogue state * free state * graph state * green state * ground state * hole state * in a state * iron state * island state * head of state * landlocked state * link state * member state * nanny state * narco state * nation-state * night watchman state * party state * police state * poppet state * princely state * pro-state * pseudostate * purple state * quantum state * red state * rogue state * rump state * save state * solid state * statehood * state flower * state of affairs * state of emergency * state of matter * state of mind * state of the arts * state capital * state house * state machine * state ownership * state pattern * state school * state secret * state space * state variable * stateside * statesman * statesmanship * steady state * swing state * transition state * wait state * unitary state * upstate * welfare state (state)

    See also

    * department * province

    Verb

  • (lb) To declare to be a fact.
  • :
  • *
  • *:Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers, of errand not wholly obvious to their fellows, yet of such sort as to call into query alike the nature of their errand and their own relations. It is easily earned repetition to state that Josephine St. Auban's was a presence not to be concealed.
  • To make known.
  • :
  • Usage notes

    State'' is stronger or more definitive than ''say . It is used to communicate an absence of reasonable doubt and to emphasize the factual or truthful nature of the communication.

    Synonyms

    * See

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (obsolete) stately
  • (Spenser)

    Statistics

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