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Hole One a New See Posted 12 years ago
Vocabulary

'state of affairs'

Hi everybody,

What does 'state of affairs' mean? Dictionaries give the brief definition 'a situation'. For me, it is not enough to be able to grasp the meaning or distinguish it from 'situation'. Maybe it has exactly the same meaning (as 'situation') and just makes the language more colourful. I don't know.

Thanks for your answer(s) in advance.
  

Top answer

Hole One a New See Maybe it has exactly the same meaning (as 'situation') I agree.

— Mister Micawber

  • Hole One a New See Maybe it has exactly the same meaning (as 'situation') I agree.
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6 Answers
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Hole One a New SeeMaybe it has exactly the same meaning (as 'situation')
I agree.
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Thanks for the answer Emotion: smile

It will cause a little confusion. I'm not good at problems in connection with collocations. I guess
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You can parse this phrase, since it is not an idiom. It has the regular meanings of each word.

state = condition. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/state?s=t Entry #1.
This term is used in computing - a state variable holds a system value; eg. a switch is binary; its state can take two
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Interesting and seems logical. I used this phase because it was mentioned as an idiom explicitly in OALD and also got separate entries in other dictionaries (e.g. Macmillan, Longman):
http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/state_1

Oh, there is a part
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Yes, I would say that is a reasonable description.
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