Definitions for nation
ˈneɪ ʃənna·tion

Princeton's WordNet(3.50 / 2 votes)Rate this definition:

1. state, nation, country, land, commonwealth, res publica, body politicnoun

   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"

2. nation, land, countrynoun

   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"

3. Nation, Carry Nation, Carry Amelia Moore Nationnoun

   United States prohibitionist who raided saloons and destroyed bottles of liquor with a hatchet (1846-1911)

4. nationnoun

   a federation of tribes (especially Native American tribes)

   "the Shawnee nation"

Webster Dictionary(3.75 / 4 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Nationnoun

   a part, or division, of the people of the earth, distinguished from the rest by common descent, language, or institutions; a race; a stock

2. Nationnoun

   the body of inhabitants of a country, united under an independent government of their own

3. Nationnoun

   family; lineage

4. Nationnoun

   one of the divisions of university students in a classification according to nativity, formerly common in Europe

5. Nationnoun

   one of the four divisions (named from the parts of Scotland) in which students were classified according to their nativity

6. Nationnoun

   a great number; a great deal; -- by way of emphasis; as, a nation of herbs

Freebase(4.29 / 14 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Nation

   Nation may refer to a community of people who share a common language, culture, ethnicity, descent, or history. However, it can also refer to people who share a common territory and government irrespective of their ethnic make-up; that is, a nation state. The word nation can more specifically refer to people of North American Indians. Nation carries varying meanings, and the connotation of the term has changed over time. The idea of a nation is a social reality that we have used to organize history. As Benedict Anderson argues in his book Imagined Communities, the nation is an imagined political community. It is imagined because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion. Furthermore, it is a community because regardless of the actual inequality or exploitation that may exist in it, the nation is always conceived as a deep, horizontal comradeship. This is not to say that the concept is false, rather it was simply imaged and created by humans, and it is not something that necessarily exists in nature.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary(2.00 / 2 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Nation

   nā′shun, n. a body of people born of the same stock: the people inhabiting the same country, or under the same government: a race: a great number: a division of students in a university for voting purposes at Aberdeen and Glasgow. [Fr.,—L. nation-em,—nasci, natus, to be born.]

Editors Contribution(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. nation

   A group of people with a unity government and unity governmental structure and legislation.

   The nation agreed on a national unity government.

   Submitted by MaryC on March 3, 2020  

Suggested Resources(4.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. nation

   The nation symbol -- In this Symbols.com article you will learn about the meaning of the nation symbol and its characteristic.

Etymology and Origins(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Nation

   An Americanism for “damnation.”

Matched Categories

1. • Confederation
   • Dry
   • People
   • Political Unit

British National Corpus

1. Spoken Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'nation' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #2338

2. Written Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'nation' in Written Corpus Frequency: #3511

3. Nouns Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'nation' in Nouns Frequency: #562

Anagrams for nation »

1. Anoint

2. Tonian

How to pronounce nation?

1. Alex

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

How to say nation in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of nation in Chaldean Numerology is: 5

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of nation in Pythagorean Numerology is: 1

Examples of nation in a Sentence

1. John Bolton:

   Iran's continued pursuit of nuclear weapons, its threats to exceed the limits set in the failed Iran nuclear deal in the coming days ... are not signs of a nation seeking peace, sanctions are biting, and more added last night.

2. Ambassador William Hagerty:

   We want to ensure that the U.S. has trading terms with Japan that are no less favorable than any other nation.

3. Martin Luther King, Jr.:

   Our loyalties must transend our race, our tribe, our class, and our nation and this means we must develop a world perspective.

4. President Trump:

   Were with you every step of the way. No nation is more prepared or more equipped to face this, as you know, with faith and heart and hope, we will succeeed and we will prevail. We will be very, very successful and learn for the future.

5. Transport Minister Patrick McLoughlin:

   As a nation we must be ambitious and forward looking. This is a once in a generation opportunity to answer a vital question.

Images & Illustrations of nation

Popularity rank by frequency of use