Nation-wide or nationwide?
nation-wide is an adjective meaning “Alternative form of nationwide”; nationwide is an adjective meaning “Extending throughout an entire nation”. nation-wide is written with a hyphen and nationwide as one word; they are used differently.
What is the difference between nation-wide and nationwide?
| nation-wide | nationwide | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective, adverb | adjective, adverb |
| Meaning | Alternative form of nationwide | Extending throughout an entire nation Throughout a nation |
| Example | none recorded | Near-synonym: (in federations) federal |
| Pronunciation | not recorded | /ˌneɪ.ʃənˈwaɪd/ |
| In writing | not counted (the list counts single words) | 12 times per million words |
Sources: nation-wide and nationwide in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of nation-wide and nationwide
nation-wide
- 1
Alternative form of nationwide
- 2
Alternative form of nationwide
nationwide
- 1
Extending throughout an entire nation
Near-synonym: (in federations) federal
- 2
Throughout a nation
Near-synonym: (in federations) federally
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, nation-wide or nationwide?
nation-wide is a phrase, which the list of single words does not count; nationwide 12 times per million words.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search nation-wide vs nationwide?
“nation-wide vs nationwide” is searched about 10 times a month on Google and 10 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“nationwide vs nation-wide”, “nation-wide or nationwide”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.