what is the exact meaning of oxidation state? can you mention the concept of oxidation state without its simple definition i-e it is the apparent charge +ve or -ve.....
I found these in wikipedia but didn't understand."Conceptually, the oxidation state, which may be positive, negative or zero, is the hypothetical charge that an atom would have if all bonds to atoms of different elements were 100% ionic, with no covalent component. This is never exactly true for real bonds.". what does it mean? please clear with example if possible.
Oxidation state is a formal number ascribed to atoms, to tell if it has more or less electrons than in its natural state.

For single atoms it is fairly straightforward, as electrons can only be removed or added in discrete units. Therefore, an atom or ion has an oxidation state that equals it electric charge.

But electrons are not small particles, orbiting the molecule. In many ways an electron is better described as a cloud of negative charge hovering around the molecule and chemical bonds.

When different atoms are connected in a molecule, this cloud is not evenly distributed between the atoms. Example: In Carbonmonoxide (CO) the Oxygen attracts most of the electron-cloud. But not all, if so the molecule would part into ions.

In reality, the oxidation state of the atoms in CO should be calculated with decimals instead of whole numbers, but for practical reasons we ascribe the whole of an electron in a bond to one of the atoms.

In Carbonmonoxide the atoms are bonded by a double-bond (4 electrons) and if all of these “belongs” to oxygen it will have two more than the basic atom and thus the oxidation state is -2.