national
adjective · noun
Simple meaning
Belonging to a whole country rather than one small area.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
nashuhnuhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈnæʃənəl
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.
adjective
Concerned with or applicable to or belonging to an entire nation or country
Belonging to or characteristic of a specific nation or country, as opposed to others.
Characteristic of or peculiar to the people of a nation
Pertaining to a nation or country, especially as a whole; affecting, shared by, or existing throughout all of a nation.
Of or relating to or belonging to a nation or country
noun
A person who owes allegiance to that nation
usually in the plural
A tournament in which participants from all over the nation compete.
A subject of a nation.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner (estimated)
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Concerned with or applicable to or belonging to an entire nation or country
Used this way, national is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use national
- “The national park has many beautiful hiking trails.”adjective
Share your sentence
Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Tap the highlighted word to open its own entry.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
With regard to a nation taken as a whole.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Censorship under civil authority of communications entering or leaving or crossing the borders of the United States or its territories or possessions.
The part of NOAA that maintains the world's largest active archive of weather data.
The debt of the national government (as distinguished from the debts of individuals and businesses and political subdivisions).
A limit set by Congress beyond which the national debt cannot rise.
An emblem flown as a symbol of nationality.
A combat support agency that provides geographic intelligence in support of national security.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Antonyms
Sense: concerned with or applicable to
Use This Word
See how this word sounds in a real sentence.
Ask Vocabaura
Understand the word your way.
What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
Use it yourself
Knowing “national” starts when you use it. Pick a next step, all free.
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.