state

A broad term that can apply to a lot of systemsThis is a very generic term for any collection of components that, all together, can do something. Systems can be built from subsystems. Examples are your cell phone; your computer; the radio in your car; anything that seems like a "whole.". Let’s say you have a system that can be one of two ways – on or off. That “on-ness” or “off-ness” is the state of the system. The system is either in an on state or an off state. Many different kinds of systems can have many different kinds of state. There are many complex branches of engineering or physics or even mathematics that deal with state. The easiest way to think of any of them is, “the way things are” (which may depend on the history of prior states, meaning how they got to this particular state).