nation
noun
Simple meaning
A large group of people united by common culture, land, and government
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
nayshuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈneɪʃən
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
collective
A historically constituted, stable community of people, formed based on a common language, territory, economic life, ethnicity and/or psychological make-up manifested in a common culture.
by extensioninformaloften humorous
A community united by some trait (especially an interest) but not historically constituted.
international lawmetonymic
A sovereign state; (loosely, metonymic, proscribed) a country.
In North America, an Indigenous people and their federally recognized territory.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner (estimated)
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- General English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (collective) A historically constituted, stable community of people, formed based on a common language, territory, economic life, ethnicity and/or psychological make-up manifested in a common culture.
Used this way, nation is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in finance or economics contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Finance/economics
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use nation
- “A statement that sums up the nation's mood.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Similar Words, What’s the Difference?
Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
A polity or community.
The well-being of a community.
A people sharing a common origin, culture and/or language, and possibly constituting a nation-state.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Related to A historically constituted, stable community of people, formed based on a common language, territory, economic life, ethnicity and/or psychological make-up manifested in a common…
With regard to a nation taken as a whole.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A group of militant Black Americans who profess Islamic religious beliefs and advocate independence for Black Americans.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
Extending throughout an entire nation.
People having common origins or traditions and often comprising a nation.
The total value of all income in a nation (wages and profits and interest and rents and pension payments) during a given period (usually 1 yr).
A song formally adopted as the anthem for a nation.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: historically constituted or stable community of people
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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.