Adjacent Words

Nation definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

NATION, n. [to be born]
1. A body of people inhabiting the same country, or united under the same sovereign or government; as the English nation; the French nation. It often happens that many nations are subject to one government; in which case, the word nation usually denotes a body of people speaking the same language, or a body that has formerly been under a distinct government, but has been conquered, or incorporated with a larger nation. Thus the empire of Russia comprehends many nations, as did formerly the Roman and Persian empires. Nation, as its etymology imports, originally denoted a family or race of men descended from a common progenitor, like tribe, but by emigration, conquest and intermixture of men of different families, this distinction is in most countries lost.
2. A great number, by way of emphasis.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a politically organized body of people under a single government; "the state has elected a new president"; "African nations"; "students who had come to the nation's capitol"; "the country's largest manufacturer"; "an industrialized land" [syn: state, nation, country, land, commonwealth, res publica, body politic]
2: the people who live in a nation or country; "a statement that sums up the nation's mood"; "the news was announced to the nation"; "the whole country worshipped him" [syn: nation, land, country]
3: United States prohibitionist who raided saloons and destroyed bottles of liquor with a hatchet (1846-1911) [syn: Nation, Carry Nation, Carry Amelia Moore Nation]
4: a federation of tribes (especially Native American tribes); "the Shawnee nation"

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Middle English nacioun, from Anglo-French naciun, from Latin nation-, natio birth, race, nation, from nasci to be born; akin to Latin gignere to beget — more at kin Date: 14th century 1. a. (1) nationality 5a (2) a politically organized nationality (3) a non-Jewish nationality <why do the nations conspire — Psalms
2:1 (Revised Standard Version)> b. a community of people composed of one or more nationalities and possessing a more or less defined territory and government c. a territorial division containing a body of people of one or more nationalities and usually characterized by relatively large size and independent status 2. archaic group, aggregation 3. a tribe or federation of tribes (as of American Indians)

Merriam Webster's

biographical name Carry Amelia 1846-1911 née Moore American temperance agitator

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 a community of people of mainly common descent, history, language, etc., forming a State or inhabiting a territory. 2 a tribe or confederation of tribes of N. American Indians. Phrases and idioms: law of nations Law international law. Derivatives: nationhood n. Etymology: ME f. OF f. L natio -onis f. nasci nat- be born

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Nation Na"tion, n. [F. nation, L. natio nation, race, orig., a being born, fr. natus, p. p. of nasci, to be born, for gnatus, gnasci, from the same root as E. kin. [root]44. See Kin kindred, and cf. Cognate, Natal, Native.] 1. (Ethnol.) A part, or division, of the people of the earth, distinguished from the rest by common descent, language, or institutions; a race; a stock. All nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues. --Rev. vii. 9. 2. The body of inhabitants of a country, united under an independent government of their own. A nation is the unity of a people. --Coleridge. Praise the power that hath made and preserved us a nation. --F. S. Key. 3. Family; lineage. [Obs.] --Chaucer. 4. (a) One of the divisions of university students in a classification according to nativity, formerly common in Europe. (b) (Scotch Universities) One of the four divisions (named from the parts of Scotland) in which students were classified according to their nativity. 5. A great number; a great deal; -- by way of emphasis; as, a nation of herbs. --Sterne. Five nations. See under Five. Law of nations. See International law, under International, and Law. Syn: people; race. See People.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(nations) Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English. 1. A nation is an individual country considered together with its social and political structures. Such policies would require unprecedented cooperation between nations... The Arab nations agreed to meet in Baghdad. N-COUNT 2. The nation is sometimes used to refer to all the people who live in a particular country. (JOURNALISM) It was a story that touched the nation's heart. N-SING

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. State, commonwealth, realm, nationality. 2. People, community, population, race, stock.

1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue

An abbreviation of damnation: a vulgar term used in Kent, Sussex, and the adjacent counties, for very. Nation good; very good. A nation long way; a very long way.

Moby Thesaurus

Everyman, John Doe, Public, ally, animal kingdom, archduchy, archdukedom, blood, body politic, breed, brood, buffer state, captive nation, chieftaincy, chieftainry, citizenry, city-state, clan, class, colony, common man, commonweal, commonwealth, community, community at large, constituency, country, county, cultural community, culture, deme, domain, dominion, duchy, dukedom, dwellers, earldom, empery, empire, estate, ethnic group, everybody, everyman, everyone, everywoman, family, folk, folks, free city, general public, gens, gentry, grand duchy, habitancy, house, inhabitants, kind, kingdom, land, line, lineage, linguistic community, mandant, mandate, mandated territory, mandatee, mandatory, matriclan, men, nationality, order, patriclan, people, people at large, people in general, persons, phratry, phyle, plant kingdom, polis, polity, populace, population, possession, power, principality, principate, protectorate, province, public, puppet government, puppet regime, race, realm, republic, satellite, seneschalty, sept, settlement, society, sovereign nation, species, speech community, state, stem, stirps, stock, strain, sultanate, superpower, territory, toparchia, toparchy, totem, tribe, whole people, world, you and me