nation state

Noun

nation-state (plural nation-states)

1. A political entity (a state) associated with a common national identity (historically, culturally, or ethnically; as with a nation) and a sovereign territorial unit.
   • Two years on, and while the Sultan of Slowjamastan has instigated more than a few bizarre laws (he’s outlawed the wearing of Crocs, for example), the Republic also has all the trappings of a fledgling nation-state. It issues its own passports, flies its own flag, prints its own currency (“the...2023 June 8, Richard Collett, “He ran out of countries to visit, so he created his own”, in CNN
2. (broadly, proscribed) Any independent political state; a country.