department of state

1. 1.

   the federal department in the United States that sets and maintains foreign policies

   “the Department of State was created in 1789”

   SynonymsUnited States Department of StateState DepartmentStateDoS

   Broaderexecutive department

   NarrowerFoggy Bottom

   PartsBureau of Diplomatic SecurityForeign ServiceBureau of Intelligence and Research

Questions about department of state

What does department of state mean?

department of state means "the federal department in the United States that sets and maintains foreign policies".

What is another word for department of state?

Close synonyms include United States Department of State, State Department, State, DoS. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is department of state a common word?

department of state is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.