nation
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: nā'shən
ipa: /ˈneɪʃən/
rhymes: -eɪʃən
Forms: form: nations
Etymology: From Middle English nacioun, nacion, from Old French nacion, from Latin nātiōnem, accusative of nātiō (“nation”). Displaced native Old English þēod.
Senses: examples: text: The Roma are a nation without a country.
text: pre-Columbian nations
text: All the ends of the woꝛld ſhall remember, and turne vnto the Lord: and all the kinreds of the nations ſhall woꝛſhip befoꝛe thee.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 22:27:
coordinate_terms: word: people#English:_group of persons, such as a nation
english: sometimes synonymous
translation: sometimes synonymous
glosses: 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.
examples: text: the Dallas Cowboys nation
text: Did Pinterest create a culture of do-it-yourselfers, or did the DIY nation create Pinterest? The answer may not be certain, but we do know that a lot of customers love to do things on their own.
ref: 2016 May 5, Johansson Anna, “5 Marketing Tips for Reaching the DIY Generation”, in Entrepreneur, retrieved 21 Dec 2023:
coordinate_terms: word: people#English:_group of persons, such as a nation
english: sometimes synonymous
translation: sometimes synonymous
glosses: 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.
A community united by some trait (especially an interest) but not historically constituted.
examples: text: Though legally single nations, many states comprise several distinct cultural or ethnic groups.
text: It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: […] perhaps to muse on the irrelevance of the borders that separate nation states and keep people from understanding their shared environment.
ref: 2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36:
text: By the start of the 19th century, Europe was neckdeep in the Napoleonic Wars, which, at various times, amounted to the British Empire against Europe, and, at others, involved Britain subsidising various nations, such as Austria and Prussia, against Napoleon.
ref: 2018 December 1, Drachinifel, 1:18 from the start, in Anti-Slavery Patrols - The West Africa Squadron, archived from the original on 29 Nov 2024:
qualifier: international law
glosses: A sovereign state; (loosely, metonymic, proscribed) a country.
examples: text: Once widespread across Europe in medieval times, nations are now largely restricted to the ancient universities of Sweden and Finland.
synonyms: student nation
glosses: An association of students based on the birthplace or ethnicity of its members.
examples: text: […]and what a nation of herbs he had procured to mollify her humours, &c. &c.[…]
ref: 1762, Laurence Sterne, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, new edition, volume V, Altenburgh: G. E. Richter, published 1772, page 57:
glosses: A great number; a great deal.
examples: text: The Choctaw Nation is the third-largest federally recognized tribe in the United States and the second-largest Indian reservation in area.
glosses: In North America, an Indigenous people and their federally recognized territory.
Derived terms: aspirant nation
bedroom nation
bug nation
captive nation
cybernation
domestic dependent nation
egonation
father of the nation
First Nation
First Nations
Ford Nation
Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation
home nation
independent mini-nation
indispensable nation
internation
macronation
micronation
mini-nation
model nation
most favored nation
most favoured nation
mother of the nation
multination
nanonation
natiolect
national
nation-builder
nation-building
nationful
nationhood
nationism
nationist
nationless
nationlike
Nation of Islam
nation of laws
nationship
nation-state
nation state
nationwide
nation wrecker
Navajo Nation
Neutral Nation
new nation project
one nation
one-nation conservatism
one-nation conservative
plurination
project nation
proposition nation
pseudonation
pseudo-nation
ronation
Six Nations of the Grand River
space nation
State of the Nation
student nation
subnation
supernation
Test nation
the race that stops a nation
United Nations
Related terms: antenatal
innate
nascent
natal
native
nativism
nativity
nativization
natural
naturalism
nature
naturism
prenatal
country
culture
ethnicity
homeland
people
race
society
state