Nation

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈneɪʃən/

Definitions

1. A country with its own government, territory, and population forming a distinct political and cultural entity
2. A distinct political entity marked by a shared identity, territory, governance, and cultural heritage among its inhabitants
3. A collective of people who share common cultural, historical, and social traits within defined geographical boundaries and organized governance

Etymology: The English word "nation" is, at root, a noun about birth. Its Latin ancestor "nātiō" came from the verb "nascī," "to be born," so a nation was originally a group of people sharing a common origin, a kind of extended birth-family, long before it meant a country with a government. The Latin word passed through Old French "nacion" into Middle English as "nacioun" and "nacion," and English speakers took the sense of common descent with them. Before "nation" took hold, English had its own words for this idea. Old English "þēod" (the ancestor of "people" in its older sense) and "cynewīse" were the everyday terms, and "nation" gradually displaced them. The modern political sense, a country with its own government, developed later as the idea of a people shaping a state became central to political thought.

Synonyms: country, state, sovereign state, land, realm

Antonyms: statelessness, division, fragmentation