[re.pub.lic] n [F republique, fr. MF republique, fr. L respublica, fr. res thing, wealth + publica, fem. of publicus public--more at real, public] (1604) 1 a (1): a government having a chief of state who is not a monarch and who in modern times is usu. a president (2): a political unit (as a nation) having such a form of government b (1): a government in which supreme power resides in a body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by elected officers and representatives responsible to them and governing according to law (2): a political unit (as a nation) having such a form of government c: a usu. specified republican government of a political unit "the French Fourth Republic"
2: a body of persons freely engaged in a specified activity "the ~ of letters"
3: a constituent political and territorial unit of the former nations of Czechoslovakia, the U.S.S.R., or Yugoslavia