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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

nation.

A historically constituted, stable community of people, formed based on a common language, territory, economic life, ethnicity and/or psychological make-up manifested in a common culture.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈneɪʃən/
  1. A historically constituted, stable community of people, formed based on a common language, territory, economic life, ethnicity and/or psychological make-up manifested in a common culture.

    collective
    The Roma are a nation without a country.
    pre-Columbian nations
  2. A historically constituted, stable community of people, formed based on a common language, territory, economic life, ethnicity and/or psychological make-up manifested in a common culture. A community united by some trait (especially an interest) but not historically constituted.

    broadly · collective · humorous · informal · often
    the Dallas Cowboys nation
    the hip-hop nation
  3. A sovereign state; (loosely, metonymic, proscribed) a country.

    metonymically
    Though legally single nations, many states comprise several distinct cultural or ethnic groups.
  4. An association of students based on the birthplace or ethnicity of its members.

    historical
    Once widespread across Europe in medieval times, nations are now largely restricted to the ancient universities of Sweden and Finland.
  5. A great number; a great deal.

    obsolete
  6. In North America, an Indigenous people with federal and/or state recognition as such and (often also) their federally recognized territory.

    The Choctaw Nation is the third-largest federally recognized tribe in the United States and the second-largest Indian reservation in area.
    The term Navajo Nation refers both to the people and to their territory.
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh₁- Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Indo-European *ǵénh₁tisder. Proto-Italic *gnātiō Latin nātiōbor. Old French nacionbor. Middle English nacioun English nation From Middle English nacioun, nacion, from Old French nacion, from Latin nātiōnem, accusative of nātiō (“nation”). Displaced Old English þēod.

noun/ˈneɪʃən/
  1. Damnation.

    rare
Where this word comes from

Short for damnation or tarnation.

adv/ˈneɪʃən/
  1. Extremely, very.

    dialectal · rare
Where this word comes from

Short for damnation or tarnation.

adj/ˈneɪʃən/
  1. An intensifier; extreme, great.

    dialectal · rare
Where this word comes from

Short for damnation or tarnation.

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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.