Webster's English Dictionary

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republic

re.pub.lic \ri-'p*b-lik\ n [F re`publique, fr. MF republique, fr. L 
   respublica, fr. ]res thing, wealth + publica, fem. of publicus public - 
   more at REAL, PUBLIC 1a1: a government having a chief of state who is not a 
   monarch and who in m odern times is usu. a president 1a2: a nation or other 
   political unit having such a form of government  1b1: a government in which 
   supreme power resides in a body of citizens enti tled to vote and is 
   exercised by elected officers and representatives responsible to them and 
   governing according to law 1b2: a nation or other political unit having 
   such a form of government  1c: a usu. specified republican government of a 
   political unit {the Frenc h Fourth Republic} 2: a body of persons freely 
   engaged in a specified activity  3: a constituent political and territorial 
   unit of the U.S.S.R. or Yugoslav ia