federal

1. 1.

   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”

   Similarnational
2. 2.

   of or relating to the central government of a federation

   “a federal district is one set aside as the seat of the national government”
3. 3.

   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”

   SynonymsUnion

   Similarnorthern
4. 4.

   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”

   Antonymsunitary

   government

1. 1.

   a member of the Union Army during the American Civil War

   SynonymsFederal soldierUnion soldier

   BroaderYankee
2. 2.

   any federal law-enforcement officer

   SynonymsFedfederal official

   Broaderagent

Other forms of federal

plural

federals·

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.

Questions about federal

What does federal mean?

federal means "national; especially in reference to the government of the United States as distinct from that of its member units". That is the primary sense; the word has 6 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in federal?

federal has 3 syllables: fed-e-ral. The stress falls on "fed". In IPA it is /ˈfɛdɚəl/.

What is another word for federal?

Close synonyms include Union, Federal soldier, Union soldier, Fed, federal official. 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.

What is the opposite of federal?

The recorded antonyms are unitary.

Is federal a common word?

federal is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.