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Glite Dictionary
🇺🇸 Early US political party 🇺🇸 Strong government group
Federalist Party

Federalist Party

1 6.9
A political party in the early United States that supported a strong central government
  • proper noun
  • /ˈfɛdərəlɪst ˈpɑrti/
  • US
translation icon : Partido Federalista
  • Members of the Federalist Party advocated for a strong central government during the debates over the Constitution.

Examples

  • 1816 Federalist Party nominee for President.

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  • Twice elected Governor of Massachusetts as the nominee of the Federalist Party (1800-1807).

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  • Founder and leader of the Federalist Party.

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  • Editor of the "Federal Republican," a Federalist Party newspaper in Baltimore.

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  • Hamilton was Secretary of the Treasury as well as the leader of the Federalist Party, which dominated the Senate.

    Academic text (2014)

  • He acted as Federalist Party floor leader in the House for eight years.

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  • The Federalist Party made him a candidate in the 1796 presidential election as the intended running mate of John Adams.

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  • He served the Federalist Party as Lt. Governor of Massachusetts, President of the State Senate, and Congressman.

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  • Federalist Party candidate for Vice President of the United States in 1804 and in 1808.

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  • During his leadership, the Federalist Party grew in strength, adding 32 new Congressmen in the 1812 elections by opposing "Mr. Madison's War."

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Synonyms

Federal Party
vsFederalist Party
  • Formal
7.0

A major United States political group in the late 1700s and early 1800s that wanted a strong national government

is the same name form but includes the suffix -ist

Surface Forms

Federalist Party main

Morphology

Federalist + party

The meaning is directly and compositionally derived from 'Federalist' (an advocate of a strong central government) plus 'party' (an organized political group), so a learner who knows both words can infer it denotes a political party supporting federalist principles. A learner might not infer the historical timeframe or founders from the words alone, but the core semantic relation is transparent and cross-linguistically predictable.

Etymology

Federalist Party comes from the word federal, meaning 'a strong central government', and party, meaning 'a political group'. In the early United States, leaders such as Alexander Hamilton formed this group to support a strong national government, so the name shows what the party stood for.