State crossword clue

The most likely answers for the crossword clue “State” are TELL, LAND or WANT, with 4 letters. Below are 133 answers from 3 to 15 letters, best match first in each length, then what each top answer means and how to tell them apart.

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The best answers, explained

SAY 3 letters · verb

express in words

TELL 4 letters · verb

express in words “tell me what is bothering you”

POSIT 5 letters · verb

put before

NATION 6 letters · noun

a politically organized body of people under a single government “African nations”

COUNTRY 7 letters · noun

a politically organized body of people under a single government “the country's largest manufacturer”

PROVINCE 8 letters · noun

the territory occupied by one of the constituent administrative districts of a nation

CONDITION 9 letters · noun

a state at a particular time “a condition (or state) of disrepair”

POPULATION 10 letters · noun

the people who inhabit a territory or state “the population seemed to be well fed and clothed”

DESTRUCTION 11 letters · noun

a final state

COMMONWEALTH 12 letters · noun

a politically organized body of people under a single government

CONTAMINATION 13 letters · noun

the state of being contaminated

SUSCEPTIBILITY 14 letters · noun

the state of being susceptible; easily affected

CONFIDENTIALITY 15 letters · noun

the state of being secret “you must respect the confidentiality of your client's communications”

Telling them apart

With 4 squares, TELL, LAND, WANT, NEED, LIFE and HIGH all fit. The first letter settles most of it: T → TELL · L → LAND, LIFE · W → WANT · N → NEED · H → HIGH. Fill in that crossing answer first.

With 5 squares, POSIT, THINK, BEING, ORDER, DEATH and CHECK all fit. The first letter tells them all apart: P → POSIT · T → THINK · B → BEING · O → ORDER · D → DEATH · C → CHECK. Fill in that crossing answer first.

With 3 squares, SAY, OUT, END, ADD, ICE and FLY all fit. The first letter tells them all apart: S → SAY · O → OUT · E → END · A → ADD · I → ICE · F → FLY. Fill in that crossing answer first.

Other forms of this clue

Clues often use another form of the word, and the answer then takes the same form: “stated” wants an answer that ends the same way.

What “state” means

• noun: the territory occupied by one of the constituent administrative districts of a nation (“his state is in the deep south”)
• noun: the way something is with respect to its main attributes (“the current state of knowledge”)
• noun: the group of people comprising the government of a sovereign state (“the state has lowered its income tax”)
• noun: a politically organized body of people under a single government (“the state has elected a new president”)

A clue usually points at one of these senses, so the right answer is the one that matches the sense the puzzle means: check it against the crossing words.

About these answers

We match the clue against our own thesaurus and dictionary (Open English WordNet): words that mean the same as STATE, and words whose definition is STATE. We don't copy answers from newspaper puzzles, so a clue that leans on trivia or wordplay may need the crossing letters instead.