Adjacent Words

Territory definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

TER'RITORY, n. [L. territorium, from terra, earth.]
1. The extent or compass of land within the bounds or belonging to the jurisdiction of any state, city or other body.
Linger not in my territories.
They erected a house within their own territory.
Arts and sciences took their rise and flourished only in those small territories where the people were free.
2. A tract of land belonging to and under the dominion of a prince or state, lying at a distance from the parent country or from the seat of government; as the territories of the East India Company; the territories of the United States; the territory of Michigan; Northwest Territory. These districts of country, when received into the union and acknowledged to be states, lose the appellation of territory.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a region marked off for administrative or other purposes [syn: district, territory, territorial dominion, dominion]
2: an area of knowledge or interest; "his questions covered a lot of territory"
3: the geographical area under the jurisdiction of a sovereign state; "American troops were stationed on Japanese soil" [syn: territory, soil]

Merriam Webster's

noun (plural -ries) Etymology: Middle English, from Latin territorium, literally, land around a town, from terra land — more at terrace Date: 14th century 1. a. a geographic area belonging to or under the jurisdiction of a governmental authority b. an administrative subdivision of a country c. a part of the United States not included within any state but organized with a separate legislature d. a geographic area (as a colonial possession) dependent on an external government but having some degree of autonomy 2. a. an indeterminate geographic area b. a field of knowledge or interest 3. a. an assigned area; especially one in which a sales representative or distributor operates b. an area often including a nesting or denning site and a variable foraging range that is occupied and defended by an animal or group of animals

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. (pl. -ies) 1 the extent of the land under the jurisdiction of a ruler, State, city, etc. 2 (Territory) an organized division of a country, esp. one not yet admitted to the full rights of a State. 3 a sphere of action or thought; a province. 4 the area over which a commercial traveller or goods-distributor operates. 5 Zool. an area defended by an animal or animals against others of the same species. 6 an area defended by a team or player in a game. 7 a large tract of land. Etymology: ME f. L territorium f. terra land

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Territory Ter"ri*to*ry, n.; pl. Territories. [L. territorium, from terra the earth: cf. F. territoire. See Terrace.] 1. A large extent or tract of land; a region; a country; a district. He looked, and saw wide territory spread Before him -- towns, and rural works between. --Milton. 2. The extent of land belonging to, or under the dominion of, a prince, state, or other form of government; often, a tract of land lying at a distance from the parent country or from the seat of government; as, the territory of a State; the territories of the East India Company. 3. In the United States, a portion of the country not included within the limits of any State, and not yet admitted as a State into the Union, but organized with a separate legislature, under a Territorial governor and other officers appointed by the President and Senate of the United States. In Canada, a similarly organized portion of the country not yet formed into a Province.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(territories) Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English. 1. Territory is land which is controlled by a particular country or ruler. The government denies that any of its territory is under rebel control. ...Russian territory. N-VAR 2. A territory is a country or region that is controlled by another country. He toured some of the disputed territories now under UN control. N-COUNT 3. You can use territory to refer to an area of knowledge or experience. Following the futuristic The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood's seventh novel, Cat's Eye, returns to more familiar territory... = terrain virgin territory: see virgin N-UNCOUNT: with supp 4. An animal's territory is an area which it regards as its own and which it defends when other animals try to enter it. N-VAR: usu with supp 5. Territory is land with a particular character. ...mountainous territory. ...a vast and uninhabited territory. N-UNCOUNT: with supp, usu adj N 6. If you say that something comes with the territory, you mean that you accept it as a natural result of the situation you are in. You can't expect not to have a debate; that's what comes with the territory in a democracy. PHRASE: V inflects

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. Country, domain, district, quarter, province, land.

Moby Thesaurus

Kreis, Lebensraum, acres, air space, airspace, alluvion, alluvium, ally, ambit, arable land, archbishopric, archdiocese, archduchy, archdukedom, area, arrondissement, back country, bailiwick, belt, bishopric, body politic, borough, buffer state, canton, captive nation, champaign, chieftaincy, chieftainry, city, city-state, clay, clear space, clearance, clearing, clod, colony, commonweal, commonwealth, commune, confines, congressional district, constablewick, constituency, continental shelf, corridor, country, county, crust, demesne, departement, department, desert, diocese, dirt, distant prospect, district, division, domain, dominion, dry land, duchy, dukedom, dust, earldom, earth, electoral district, electorate, empery, empire, empty view, environs, footing, free city, freehold, glade, glebe, government, grand duchy, grassland, ground, hamlet, heartland, hinterland, hundred, kingdom, land, landholdings, lithosphere, living space, magistracy, mandant, mandate, mandated territory, mandatee, mandatory, marginal land, marl, metropolis, metropolitan area, milieu, mold, nation, nationality, neighborhood, oblast, offshore rights, okrug, open country, open space, orbit, outback, parish, part, parts, patch, place, plain, polis, polity, possession, power, prairie, precinct, precincts, premises, principality, principate, protectorate, province, puppet government, puppet regime, purlieu, purlieus, quarter, real estate, real property, realm, region, regolith, republic, riding, salient, satellite, section, sector, seneschalty, settlement, sheriffalty, sheriffwick, shire, shrievalty, sod, soil, soke, sovereign nation, space, sphere, sphere of influence, stake, stamping ground, state, steppe, subaerial deposit, subsoil, sultanate, superpower, terra, terra firma, terrain, the country, three-mile limit, toparchia, toparchy, topsoil, town, township, tract, turf, twelve-mile limit, vantage, vicinage, vicinity, village, walk, wapentake, ward, wide-open spaces, wilderness, woodland, zone