Abstract : Among the set of all pure states living in a finite dimensional Hilbert space $\mathcal{H}_N$one distinguishes subsets of states satisfying some natural condition. One basis independent choice, consist in selecting the spin coherent states, corresponding to the $SU(2)$ group, or generalized, $SU(K)$ coherent states. Another often studied example is basis dependent, as states coherent with respect to a given basis are distinguished by the fact that the moduli of their off-diagonal elements (called 'coherences') are as large as possible. It is natural to define 'anti-coherent' states, which are maximally distant to the set of coherent states and to quantify the degree of coherence of a given state can by its distance to the set of anti-coherent states. For instance, the separable states of a system composed of two subsystems with $N$ levels are coherent with respect to the composite group $SU(N)\times SU(N)$, while in this setup, the anti-coherent states are maximally entangled.