# State

State most commonly refers to:
** Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country
** Nation state, a state where the majority identify with a single nation (with shared culture or ethnic group)
** Constituent state, a political subdivision of a state
** Federated state, constituent states part of a federation
*** U.S. state
* State of nature, a concept within philosophy that describes the way humans acted before forming societies or civilizations
State may also refer to:

## Arts, entertainment, and media
### Literature

* State Magazine, a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State
* The State (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States
* Our State, a monthly magazine published in North Carolina and formerly called The State
* The State (Larry Niven), a fictional future government in three novels by Larry Niven

### Music
#### Groups and labels

* States Records, an American record label
* The State (band), Australian band previously known as the Cutters

#### Albums

* State (album), a 2013 album by Todd Rundgren
* States (album), a 2013 album by the Paper Kites
* States, a 1991 album by Klinik
* The State (album), a 1999 album by Nickelback

#### Songs

* "The State", a 2011 song by Porter Robinson from Spitfire

### Television

* The State (American TV series), 1993
* The State (British TV series), 2017
* State (Friday Night Lights), an episode of the TV series Friday Night Lights

### Other

* State Theatre (disambiguation), several theatres
* The State (comedy troupe), an American comedy troupe

## Law and politics

* Rechtsstaat, the legal state (constitutional state, state subordinated to law) in the philosophy of law and as a principle of many national constitutions
* United States Department of State, a division of the executive branch of the United States federal government, dealing with foreign affairs; sometimes referred to as "State", for short, in American political jargon.
Federated states:
* States of Australia
* States of Austria
* States of Brazil
* States of Germany
* States of India
* States of Malaysia
* States of Mexico
* States of Micronesia
* States of Nigeria
* States of Somalia
* States of South Sudan
* States of Sudan
* States of the United States
* States of Venezuela
Constituent states:
* States of Myanmar
* States of Palau
The Estates or the States, a national assembly of the estates of the realm, an early form of legislature that was common throughout feudal Europe:
* States of Alderney, the government and parliament of Alderney
* States of Deliberation, the government and parliament of Guernsey
* States of Jersey, including the States Assembly parliament and the Government of Jersey executive
* States-General (disambiguation), a name for several historic and current national assemblies

## Locations

* State College, Pennsylvania, a city in the United States, often referred to informally as "State"
** State College Area High School, or "State High"
* State station, subway station in Boston
* State station (CTA), in Chicago

## Mathematics

* State (controls), a term related to control theory
* State (functional analysis), a positive linear functional on an operator algebra
* State, in dynamical systems, is a fixed rule describing the time dependence of a point in a geometrical space

## Science and technology
### Computing

* State (computer science), a unique configuration of information in a program or machine
** Program state, in computer science, a snapshot of the measure of various conditions in the system
* State (website), semantic web platform created by London, UK-based Equal Media Ltd
* State pattern, in computer science, a behavioral design pattern

### Healthcare

* Medical state, one's current state of health, usually within a hospital
* Mental state

### Physics and chemistry

* State, a complete description of a system in classical mechanics
* Chemical state, the electronic, chemical and physical nature of an element
* Quantum state, the state of a quantum mechanical system given by a vector in the underlying Hilbert space
* Stationary state, an eigenvector of a Hamiltonian
* State of matter, solid, liquid or gaseous phases of matter; describing the organization of matter in a phase
* Thermodynamic state, a set of physical quantities describing variable properties of a given thermodynamic system

### Printing

* State (printmaking), distinct revisions of a work by a deliberate change to the print master

## Universities

* Ball State University, in Muncie, United States
* Georgia State University, in Atlanta, United States
* Michigan State University, in East Lansing, United States
** Michigan State Spartans, the athletic teams, commonly referred to as "State"

## Other uses

* State (theology), a degree or stage of perfection in the Christian religion
* States (automobile), cyclecar manufactured by the States Cyclecar Co of Detroit, Michigan in 1915