nation

• enPR: nā'shən, IPA^(key): /ˈneɪʃən/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

From Middle English nacioun, nacion, from Old French nacion, from Latin nātiōnem, accusative of nātiō (“nation”). Displaced native Old English þēod.

nation (plural nations)

2. (collective) 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.

   Coordinate term: (sometimes synonymous) people

   The Roma are a nation without a country.

   pre-Columbian nations

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 22:27:

     All the ends of the woꝛld ſhall remember, and turne vnto the Lord: and all the kinreds of the nations ſhall woꝛſhip befoꝛe thee.

   1. (by extension, informal, often humorous) A community united by some trait (especially an interest) but not historically constituted.

      the Dallas Cowboys nation

      • 2016 May 5, Johansson Anna, “5 Marketing Tips for Reaching the DIY Generation”, in Entrepreneur‎^[1], retrieved 21 December 2023:

        Did Pinterest create a culture of do-it-yourselfers, or did the DIY nation create Pinterest? The answer may not be certain, but we do know that a lot of customers love to do things on their own.

3. (international law, metonymic) A sovereign state; (loosely, metonymic, proscribed) a country.

   Though legally single nations, many states comprise several distinct cultural or ethnic groups.

   • 2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly‎^[2], volume 188, number 26, page 36:

     It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]:  […] perhaps to muse on the irrelevance of the borders that separate nation states and keep people from understanding their shared environment.

   • 2018 December 1, Drachinifel, 1:18 from the start, in Anti-Slavery Patrols - The West Africa Squadron‎^[3], archived from the original on 29 November 2024:

     By the start of the 19th century, Europe was neckdeep in the Napoleonic Wars, which, at various times, amounted to the British Empire against Europe, and, at others, involved Britain subsidising various nations, such as Austria and Prussia, against Napoleon.

4. (chiefly historical) An association of students based on the birthplace or ethnicity of its members.

   Synonym: student nation

   Once widespread across Europe in medieval times, nations are now largely restricted to the ancient universities of Sweden and Finland.

5. (obsolete) A great number; a great deal.
   • 1762, Laurence Sterne, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, new edition, volume V, Altenburgh: G. E. Richter, published 1772, page 57:

     […] and what a nation of herbs he had procured to mollify her humours, &c. &c. […]

6. In North America, an Indigenous people and 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.

• (British) Following the establishment of the Scottish and Welsh parliaments, England, Scotland and Wales are normally considered distinct nations. Application of the term nation to the United Kingdom as a whole is deprecated in most style guides, including the BBC, most newspapers and in UK Government publications. Northern Ireland, being of less clear legal status, generally remains a province.

Short for damnation or tarnation.

• 'nation

nation

1. (rare) Damnation.
   • 1875, Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, page 611:

     ... what the nation's the matter of that boy now ? If he's got them highsterics ag'in , I'll blister him from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet , sure as he's a - livin ' . " The doctor took up his hat and started out to meet […]

   • 1896, Hardy, Laodicean, page 487, quoted in the EDD:

     O nation!.. if I were a man, […]

   • 1897, George Bartram, People of Clopton, page 193:

     What the nation's the matter now?

   • 2025 March 2, Warren H. Miller, Red Mesa : A tale of the southwest, Good Press:

     "What the nation's the matter with our John?" he broke off suddenly as his eyes fell on the occupant of the cot.

nation

1. (rare, dialectal) Extremely, very.
   • 1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XIX, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) […], London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC, page 186:

     “Looky here, Bilgewater,” he says, “I’m nation sorry for you, but you ain’t the only person that’s had troubles like that.”

   • 1856, Mary Botham Howitt, My uncle the clockmaker, page 10:

     "Beleddy, Mester, yo're a dab hand at axing questions, at ony rate! One has to look back a 'nation long way into one's books to find what yo I axen after.

   • 1896, English Dialect Society, Publications, page 71:

     But no sense ov a place, some think, Is this here hill so high, - 'Cos there, full oft, 'tis nation coad, But that don't argufy.

   • 1899, Thomas Hardy, The trumpet major, page 122:

     '... they seem 'nation fond of one another.' 'He haven't knowed her such a very long time,' said Job Mitchell dubiously.

nation

1. (rare, dialectal) An intensifier; extreme, great.
   • 1839, Grace Darling, Grace Darling, or the Heroine of the Fern Islands. A tale founded on recent facts. [With plates.], page 4:

     ... a nation deal o' trouble to captivate him.

   • 1840, Sporting Magazine, page 227:

     ... a nation lot of hunters assembled, for it war known there war plenty of game ...

   • 1885, John Hankins Wallace, Wallace's Monthly: An Illustrated Magazine Devoted to Domesticated Animal Nature, page 431:

     ... a nation sight o' buzzin' an', ez Mr. Mayfield says,

   • 1892, Isabella Banks, Mrs. George Linnaeus Banks, Glory, page 59:

     I might not have been in such a nation hurry to jump from my cart to keep him from being pitched on the stones!

   • 1968, Graham's Illustrated Magazine of Literature, Romance, Art, and Fashion:

     ... a nation sight o' good.

• “Notable and Quotable”, in Merriam Webster Online Newsletter‎^[4], November 2005, archived from the original on 14 March 2006.

• Tonian, anoint

From Latin nātiō (“birth, people”), derived from the verb nāscor (“to be born”).

• IPA^(key): [naˈɕoˀn]

nation c (singular definite nationen, plural indefinite nationer)

1. a nation, a people with a common identity, united in history, culture or language
2. a nation, a country that is a politically independent unity

• “nation” in Den Danske Ordbog

Inherited from Middle French nation, from Old French nacion, borrowed from Latin nātiōnem.

• IPA^(key): /na.sjɔ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔ̃

nation f (plural nations)

1. nation

• Haitian Creole: nasyon
• → Piedmontese: nassion

• “nation”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• tonnai

nation

1. (Parliamentary Rolls) alternative form of nacioun

From Old French nacion.

nation f (plural nations)

1. nation

• French: nation
  • Haitian Creole: nasyon
  • → Piedmontese: nassion

• IPA^(key): /natˈɧuːn/

• Audio:

  (file)

nation c

1. a nation, a country, a state
2. a nation, a people

   tala till nationen

   address the nation

3. a union or fraternity of students from the same province

• nation in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• nation in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• nation in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)