“countries” is a form of
country
/ˈkʌntɹi/ noun, adjective
Forms countries countrier countriest contree countrey contrey countre countrie counterie counthry cuntry
- noun The territory of a nation; a sovereign state or a region once independent and still distinct in institutions, language, etc.
- noun A large area regarded as distinct from other areas, e.g. because it is inhabited by a specific group of people “Basque Country”
- noun (especially UK, uncountable, countable) An area of land of undefined extent; a region, a district.
- noun (uncountable, countable) An area of land of indefinite extent or of more or less definite extent in relation to human occupation, especially characterized by its particular physical features, or its suitability for a particular activity or connected with its population (by race, dialect, culture, etc.) or a person, especially a writer, or their works. “Thomas Hardy country”
- noun (uncountable, usually preceded by “the”) A rural area, as opposed to a town or city; the countryside. “I grew up in the country with a 12-gauge shotgun.”
- noun The inhabitants or people of a district, region, or nation; the populace, the public. “a scandal that rocked the country”
- noun (Australia, usually capitalised) Traditional lands of Indigenous people with embedded cultural, spiritual, cosmological, ecological, and physical attributes and values.
- noun (informal) The spirit of the country (rural places): the spirit of country folkways; those folkways. “You can take the boy out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the boy.”
- adjective From or in the countryside, connected with it, or typical of it. “Things around here are just a little more country than what he's used to.”
- adjective Of or connected to country music. “They're mainly a hard rock band, but their new album sounds kinda country to me.”
- adjective (India) Originating in India rather than being imported from abroad.
Synonyms
sovereign country sovereign state native state nation land commonwealth res publica body politic rural area area
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English contre, borrowed from Old French contree, from Vulgar Latin *(terra) contrāta (“facing land”), from Latin contrā (“against”) + -āta (noun-forming suffix). Cognate with Scots kintra. Unrelated to county. Displaced native English land in some of its senses.
From around 1300 as "area surrounding a walled city or town; the open country." By early 16th century the sense was applied mostly to rural areas, as opposed to towns and cities.
Compare typologically Russian страна́ (straná), сторона́ (storoná).
Webster’s 1913
- noun A tract of land; a region; the territory of an independent nation; (as distinguished from any other region, and with a personal pronoun) the region of one's birth, permanent residence, or citizenship.
- noun Rural regions, as opposed to a city or town.
- adjective Pertaining to the regions remote from a city; rural; rustic; as, a country life; a country town; the country party, as opposed to city.
- adjective Destitute of refinement; rude; unpolished; rustic; not urbane; as, country manners.
Etymology [F. contr, LL. contrata, fr. L. contra over against, on the opposite side. Cf. Counter, adv., Contra.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “country”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details