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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

county.

The land ruled by a count or a countess.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈkaʊnti/Received-Pronunciation/ˈkuːntɪ/Northumbria/ˈkaʊn(t)i/General-American[ˈkʰaʊ̯nti]General-American
  1. The land ruled by a count or a countess.

    countable · historical · uncountable
  2. An administrative or geographical region of various countries, including Bhutan, Canada, China, Croatia, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Romania, South Korea, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and 47 of the 50 United States (excluding Alaska, Connecticut, and Louisiana).

    countable · uncountable
  3. A definitive geographic region, without direct administrative functions.

    countable · uncountable
    traditional county
  4. A jail operated by a county government.

    US · slang · uncountable
    He can't come; he's up in the county for agg assault.
Where this word comes from

From Middle English countee, counte, conte, from Anglo-Norman counté, Old French conté (French comté), from Latin comitātus (“jurisdiction of a count”), from comes (“count, earl”). Cognate with Spanish condado (“county”) and Italian contea (“county”). Doublet of comitatus, borrowed directly from Latin. Mostly displaced native Old English sċīr, whence Modern English shire.

adj/ˈkaʊnti/Received-Pronunciation/ˈkuːntɪ/Northumbria/ˈkaʊn(t)i/General-American[ˈkʰaʊ̯nti]General-American
  1. Characteristic of a ‘county family’; representative of the gentry or aristocracy of a county.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English countee, counte, conte, from Anglo-Norman counté, Old French conté (French comté), from Latin comitātus (“jurisdiction of a count”), from comes (“count, earl”). Cognate with Spanish condado (“county”) and Italian contea (“county”). Doublet of comitatus, borrowed directly from Latin. Mostly displaced native Old English sċīr, whence Modern English shire.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.