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say it: FED-ur-uhl
federal is an adjective and noun meaning "national; especially in reference to the government of the United States as distinct from that of its member units". It is pronounced /ˈfɛdɚəl/ — FED-ur-uhl. It carries 6 recorded senses.
national; especially in reference to the government of the United States as distinct from that of its member units
“the Federal Bureau of Investigation”
“federal courts”
“the federal highway program”
“federal property”
of or relating to the central government of a federation
“a federal district is one set aside as the seat of the national government”
being of or having to do with the northern United States and those loyal to the Union during the American Civil War
“Union soldiers”
“Federal forces”
“a Federal infantryman”
characterized by or constituting a form of government in which power is divided between one central and several regional authorities
“a federal system like that of the United States”
“federal governments often evolved out of confederations”
government
a member of the Union Army during the American Civil War
any federal law-enforcement officer
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for federal come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.