government

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun The act or process of governing, especially the control and administration of public policy in a political unit.
• noun The office, function, or authority of a governing individual or body.
• noun Exercise of authority in a political unit; rule.
• noun The agency or apparatus through which a governing individual or body functions and exercises authority.
• noun A governing body or organization, as.
• noun The ruling political party or coalition of political parties in a parliamentary system.
• noun The cabinet in a parliamentary system.
• noun The persons who make up a governing body.
• noun A system or policy by which a political unit is governed.
• noun Administration or management of an organization, business, or institution.
• noun Political science.
• noun Grammar The influence of a word over the morphological inflection of another word in a phrase or sentence.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun Guidance; direction; regulation; management; control: as, the government of one's conduct.
• noun The exercise of authority in the administration of the affairs of a state, community, or society; the authoritative direction and restraint. exercised over the actions of men in communities, societies, or states.
• noun The system of polity or body of principles and rules by which the affairs of a state, community, or society are administered; an established or prescribed method of guiding, directing, or managing affairs: as, representative or constitutional government; monarchical or republican government; the presbyterian, episcopal, or congregational form of church government.
• noun The governing body of persons in a state or community; the executive power; the administration.
• noun A state or body politic governed by one authority; a province or division of territory ruled by a governor.
• noun Right of governing; administrative authority; the office or function of one charged with the direction and control of affairs.
• noun Conduct or behavior; self-control or restraint.
• noun In grammar, the established usage which requires that one word in a sentence should cause another to be of a particular form; grammatical regimen.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun The act of governing; the exercise of authority; the administration of laws; control; direction; regulation.
• noun The mode of governing; the system of polity in a state; the established form of law.
• noun The right or power of governing; authority.
• noun The person or persons authorized to administer the laws; the ruling power; the administration.
• noun The body politic governed by one authority; a state.
• noun Management of the limbs or body.
• noun (Gram.) The influence of a word in regard to construction, requiring that another word should be in a particular case.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun The body with the power to make and/or enforce laws to control a country, land area, people or organization.
• noun A group of people who hold a monopoly on the legitimate use of force in a given territory.
• noun The state and its administration viewed as the ruling political power.
• noun uncountable The management or control of a system.
• noun The tenure of a chief of state.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun the act of governing; exercising authority
• noun the study of government of states and other political units
• noun the organization that is the governing authority of a political unit
• noun (government) the system or form by which a community or other political unit is governed