country

/ˈkʌntɹi/

//ˈkʌntɹi// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"country" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“country” has 11 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #313. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#313
frequency rank, English
5,599
“C” headwords
11
tracked misspellings
7
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The territory of a nation; a sovereign state or a region once independent and still distinct in institutions, language, etc.

Corpus desk

Index EN-country · country · English

country · rank #313 · 11 variants · 7 confusables

  • FREQ-CORE #313
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 7 pairs
  • VAR-MID 11 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,599
  • PHOTO-FINISH 8

Nearest frequency peer: 8 (-1 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Rank peers near misspelling magnet “country”

Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword

corpus weight

What this shows “country” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

country vs county
86% similar
country vs counts
71% similar
country vs courtly
71% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for country
PropertyValue
Headwordcountry
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ˈkʌntɹi/
Letters7
Frequency rank#313
Misspellings tracked11
Confusable pairs7
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “country”

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right).countrylands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

The axis is logarithmic, with each marked tick roughly ten times rarer than the last. Same rarity band neighbours include “8” (#312), “open” (#314), “service” (#311). Among 5,599 “C” headwords, “country” is #313. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 11 spelling variants around country (IPA /ˈkʌntɹi/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #313 among 5,599 “C” headwords. Wiktionary lists 9 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for country, with forms such as "ccountry", "conutry", and "counntry". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 7 confusable-pair relationships, "county", "counts", "courtly", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English contre, contree, contreie, from Old French contree, cuntrede, from Vulgar Latin *(terra) contrata (“(land) lying opposite; (land) spread before one”) (also in Medieval Latin as "country, region"), from Latin contrā (“against, opposite”) … The correct English form is country, spelled C-O-U-N-T-R-Y.

Definition

  1. 1
    The territory of a nation; a sovereign state or a region once independent and still distinct in institutions, language, etc.
  2. 2
    An area of land of undefined extent; a region, a district.
  3. 3
    An area of land of undefined extent; a region, a district.
  4. 4
    A rural area, as opposed to a town or city; the countryside.
  5. 5
    The inhabitants or people of a district, region, or nation; the populace, the public.
  6. 6
    Traditional lands of Indigenous people with embedded cultural, spiritual, cosmological, ecological, and physical attributes and values.
  7. 7
    Ellipsis of country music.
  8. 8
    The spirit of the country (rural places): the spirit of country folkways; those folkways.
  9. 9
    The rock through which a vein of ore or coal runs.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how country appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. By one o'clock the place was choc-a-bloc. […] The restaurant was packed, and the promenade between the two main courts and the subsidiary courts was thronged with healthy-looking youngish people, drawn to the Mecca of tennis from all parts of the country.
  2. But that expropriation of the Third World, [that] has been going on for 400 years, brings us to another revelation: namely, that the Third World is not poor. You don't go to poor countries to make money. There are very few poor countries in this world. Most countries are rich: the Philippines are rich, Brazil is rich, Mexico is rich, Chile is rich; only t…

Etymology

From Middle English contre, contree, contreie, from Old French contree, cuntrede, from Vulgar Latin *(terra) contrata (“(land) lying opposite; (land) spread before one”) (also in Medieval Latin as "country, region"), from Latin contrā (“against, opposite”) (whence contra-). 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).

Synonyms

countrysovereign countrysovereign state

This word in other languages

país(Español)pays(Français)Land(Deutsch)país(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • ccountry
  • conutry
  • counntry
  • counrty
  • countrry
  • countryy
  • counttry
  • countyr
  • coutnry
  • cuontry
  • ocuntry

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of country - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.

ccountry1conutry2counntry1counrty2countrry1countryy1counttry1countyr2
Edit distance from "country"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "country"?
"country" is spelled C-O-U-N-T-R-Y. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈkʌntɹi/.
What does "country" mean?
As a noun, "country" means: The territory of a nation; a sovereign state or a region once independent and still distinct in institutions, language, etc.
What words are commonly confused with "country"?
"country" is commonly confused with "county", "counts", "courtly". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "country"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "country" is /ˈkʌntɹi/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "country"?
From Middle English contre, contree, contreie, from Old French contree, cuntrede, from Vulgar Latin *(terra) contrata (“(land) lying opposite; (land) spread before one”) (also in Medieval Latin as "country, region"), from Latin contrā (“against, o... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "country", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

service#311general#320they're#321believe#286

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (11 here; floor ≥5).

everyone11 variantsAmerican11 variantsnational11 variantsworking11 variants

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list