| Main Entry: |
country |
| Part of Speech: |
noun |
| Definition: |
political territory; nation |
Synonyms: |
citizenry, citizens, commonwealth,
community, constituents, electors, grass roots, homeland, inhabitants,
kingdom,
land, native land, patria, people, polity,
populace,
public,
realm,
region,
society,
soil, sovereign state, state,
terrain, voters
|
| Notes: |
country really refers to geographical characteristics while nation refers to political and social characteristics; country comes from Latin contrata (terra) 'the landscape in front of one, the landscape lying opposite to the view' and nation is from Latin nation-/natio 'race, class of person'
a nation is made up of states - and a country is a nation defined geographically |
