nations

Noun

nation (plural nations)

1. (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.
   • The Roma are a nation without a country.
   1. (broadly, collective, humorous, informal, often) A community united by some trait (especially an interest) but not historically constituted.
      • Near-synonym: tribe
2. (metonymically, international law) A sovereign state; (loosely, metonymic, proscribed) a country.
   • Though legally single nations, many states comprise several distinct cultural or ethnic groups.
3. (historical) An association of students based on the birthplace or ethnicity of its members.
   • Once widespread across Europe in medieval times, nations are now largely restricted to the ancient universities of Sweden and Finland.

   Synonyms:

   student nation

4. (obsolete) A great number; a great deal.
   • […]and what a nation of herbs he had procured to mollify her humours, &c. &c.[…]1762, Laurence Sterne, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, new edition, volume V, Altenburgh: G. E. Richter, published 1772, page 57
5. 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.

See all 10 meanings of nation