soviet
/ˈsoʊvi.ət/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.54 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
3
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A workers' council, an institution first formed during the 1905 Russian Revolution and then instituted as the main form of communist government at all levels in the Soviet Union; by extension, a similar organization in early Chinese communism and elsewhere.
adj
Pertaining to or resembling a soviet (council).
adj
Alternative letter-case form of Soviet (pertaining to the Soviet Union)
noun
A citizen of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
noun
Alternative letter-case form of soviet (“workers' council”).
adj
Pertaining to the Soviet Union or its constituent republics.
adj
Supporting or representing the Soviet Union or Sovietism; Sovietist.
Example Sentences
- "They then established the West Hunan-Hupeh (Hsiang-O-Hsi) Special Committee and a little later transformed it into a soviet government. Party membership figures as of 1932 for a dozen counties in the area were estimated at 18,034, with the largest number, 4,468, working in Chienli County, then headquarters of the soviet."
- "Kratochvil, Jedlicka, Safar, Kubes and Vasata, who always took an interest in politics, set up a soviet in the last wagon and uncoupled it from the rest of the train in the night."
- "Workers' committees were forming embryo soviets, soldiers' and sailors' collectives had whole ships and regiments under their temporary command, landless workers in the countryside were taking over abandoned farms and properties."
- "An engineer who is not very soviet in his convictions is the hero."
- "Why are separate divisions for teachers and administrators in a state organization any more "soviet" than the same divisions in a city educational […]"
- "The Soviet government is not very soviet anymore or, for that matter, much of a government."
Etymology
Borrowed from Russian сове́т (sovét, “council”), from Old Russian borrowed from Old Church Slavonic съвѣтъ (sŭvětŭ, “advice”). Compounded from съ- (sŭ-) + вѣтъ (větŭ, “agreement”), from Proto-Slavic *větъ (“council, talk”). Related words include наве́т (navét), изве́т (izvét), отве́т (otvét), приве́т (privét), обе́т (obét), ве́че (véče), отвеча́ть (otvečátʹ), отве́тить (otvétitʹ), завеща́ть (zaveščátʹ), and совещаться (soveščatʹsja). Probably cognate with Polish witać (“to welcome”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: сове́т, съвѣтъ, *větъ
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈsoʊvi.ət/
- British English: /ˈsəʊvi.ət/