SELF-GOVERNMENT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does self-government mean? 

• SELF-GOVERNMENT (noun)
  The noun SELF-GOVERNMENT has 1 sense:

1. government of a political unit by its own people

  Familiarity information: SELF-GOVERNMENT used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SELF-GOVERNMENT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Government of a political unit by its own people

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

self-determination; self-government; self-rule

Hypernyms ("self-government" is a kind of...):

autonomy; liberty (immunity from arbitrary exercise of authority: political independence)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "self-government"):

sovereignty (government free from external control)

local option (freedom of a local government to determine by popular vote the applicability of a controversial law in their jurisdiction)

home rule (self-government in local matters by a city or county that is part of a national government)

 Context examples 

A political unit, such as a city, town, or village, incorporated for local self-government.

(Municipality, NCI Thesaurus)

She had all the heroism of principle, and was determined to do her duty; but having also many of the feelings of youth and nature, let her not be much wondered at, if, after making all these good resolutions on the side of self-government, she seized the scrap of paper on which Edmund had begun writing to her, as a treasure beyond all her hopes, and reading with the tenderest emotion these words, My very dear Fanny, you must do me the favour to accept locked it up with the chain, as the dearest part of the gift.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)