How to Use nation-state in a Sentence

nation-state

noun
  • On land, in the world of nation-states, Landi had reached the end of the line.
    — Atossa Araxia Abrahamian Atossa Araxia Abrahamian, New York Times, 7 Jan. 2025
  • This isn't the first time the Trump campaign has been the target of a hack by nation-state actors.
    — Mark R. Weaver, Newsweek, 4 Dec. 2024
  • Even for a Greek city-state — so different in scale from today’s nation-states — the very end of the realm seemed to contain its origins.
    — Kanishk Tharoor, Washington Post, 16 Mar. 2023
  • But Cozy Bear has actually been one of the most active nation-state groups since at least 2010.
    — Dan Goodin, Ars Technica, 26 Jan. 2024
  • The example does not have to be a nation-state for this argument to work; the key thing is the competition.
    — Eliot Bush, Scientific American, 7 Nov. 2023
  • Losing Syria, the only other nation-state in the axis other than Iran, may be the coup de grace.
    — Nabih Bulos, Los Angeles Times, 8 Jan. 2025
  • But in a world of nation-state attackers and the kind of content being secured, the risk—at some point—will become real.
    — Zak Doffman, Forbes, 21 Feb. 2024
  • In one instance, the trio assisted in stopping a nation-state hacking group.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 23 May 2023
  • The governments of some nation-states are therefore confronted with a choice.
    — Sharon Lemac-Vincere, WIRED, 29 June 2024
  • What was once mostly the realm of nation-state actors or large groups can now be accomplished with turnkey, off-the-shelf software available for purchase on the dark web.
    — Alex Weprin, The Hollywood Reporter, 19 July 2024
  • APTs are typically very crafty and sponsored by a nation-state.
    — Catherine Stupp, WSJ, 3 Aug. 2023
  • This is an excellent tool for nation-state actors and criminals alike who will be on a bonanza in the short term.
    — Davey Winder, Forbes, 16 Mar. 2023
  • Looking down, nation-states can no longer unify their peoples.
    — Joe Mathews, The Mercury News, 5 Oct. 2024
  • In 1948 the most devout of the Jewish surveyors in the Promised Land regarded the mere suggestion of a nation-state as blasphemy.
    — Jordan Castro, Harper's Magazine, 9 Jan. 2024
  • But the idea of an inalienable Palestinian right to nation-state status is wobbly at best, and may be damaging to all sides.
    — Justin Gest, Newsweek, 11 Feb. 2025
  • Hamas is, at best, a hybrid — a militant group that governs a territory that is not a nation-state.
    — Marc Fisher, Washington Post, 11 Oct. 2023
  • The big picture: Telcos have long been a target for nation-state spies looking for coveted state secrets.
    — Sam Sabin, Axios, 6 Dec. 2024
  • With such techniques often observed being used by nation-state and ransomware operators, Breen warned these should be at the top of the list for patching this month.
    — Davey Winder, Forbes, 15 Jan. 2025
  • Iran, not Russia, is proving to be the biggest nation-state threat to the U.S. presidential election in November.
    — Sam Sabin, Axios, 16 Aug. 2024
  • Vatican City Vatican City is around 0.17 square miles and the smallest fully independent nation-state in the world.
    — Ashlyn Messier, Fox News, 1 Oct. 2024
  • Those involved in discussions around sovereignty, or the right of a nation-state to govern itself, spoke to NBC News to underscore that the issue has undeniable context to the fires.
    — Kimmy Yam, NBC News, 24 Aug. 2023
  • His elevation to the senior role, experts say, shows how small the pool of skilled nation-state hackers is likely to be and demonstrates Serebriakov’s value to Russia.
    — Matt Burgess, WIRED, 18 Mar. 2023
  • Most nation-states are deeply concerned with questions about ethnic coherence.
    — Jp Brammer, Los Angeles Times, 31 Aug. 2023
  • And then there’s the issue of whether other actors — either nation-states or militant groups — might now attempt something similar in the future.
    — Joshua Keating, Vox, 18 Sep. 2024
  • On rare but horrific occasions, that enemy was capable of projecting force on the scale of a nation-state.
    — Andrew C. McCarthy, National Review, 27 Jan. 2024
  • SolarWinds was a hack that was carried out by the Russian nation-state actor Nobelium, Microsoft said in 2021.
    — Luke Barr, ABC News, 12 July 2023
  • Before the German nation-state even existed, Friedrich was a hard-core nationalist.
    — Zachary Fine, The New Yorker, 28 June 2024
  • Finally, in November of 1947 the United Nations voted to create two nation-states, recognizing that more than one people have claim to the same land.
    — Scott Meltzer, San Diego Union-Tribune, 15 Aug. 2023
  • No nation-state has continuously spanned the thousands of years that a typical Civ game simulates; the closest counterexample might be China, which is playable as three different dynastic forms (plus Mongolia) in this game.
    — Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 12 Feb. 2025
  • The decline of traditional imperialism after World War II led to a flourishing of independent nation-states.
    — Monica Duffy Toft, The Conversation, 20 Feb. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'nation-state.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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