county
noun · adjective
Simple meaning
An official area of land within a larger region or country
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kownteeSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈkaʊnti
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
An administrative or geographical region of various countries, including Bhutan, Canada, China, Croatia, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Romania, South Korea, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and 47 of the 50 United States (excluding Alaska, Connecticut, and Louisiana).
A definitive geographic region, without direct administrative functions.
usslanguncountable
A jail operated by a county government.
adjective
Characteristic of a 'county family'; representative of the gentry or aristocracy of a county.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
More ways to use county
- “The county has a population of 12,345 people.”noun
- “The county plans to build a new road.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Table consisting of a horizontal surface over which business is transacted.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
An advisor employed by the government to assist people in rural areas with methods of farming and home economics.
The elected governing body of a county.
The boundary between two counties.
The territory of a count palatine.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.