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PlainSpell

country

coun·try/ˈkʌntɹi/noun, adjective

country is spelled C-O-U-N-T-R-Y, 2 syllables: coun·try. The wrong spelling people search most is contry: about 290 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 59 of all searches for the word. Country is a noun meaning “The territory of a nation; a sovereign state or a region once independent and still distinct in institutions…”. The plural of country is countries.

How many letters and syllables are in country?

Letters7: C-O-U-N-T-R-Y
Syllables2: coun·try
In writing302 times per million words; the 316th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched2; the most searched, contry, about 290 Bing searches a month (all of them)

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).

How do you spell country?

Country is spelled C-O-U-N-T-R-Y. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 46 of the searches for country in either form.

countrythe right spelling16,740 searches a month
contrya missing u290 searches a month
coutrya missing n80 searches a month

Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.

How common is country?

Country appears 302 times per million words in written English, the 316th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce country?

  • US /ˈkʌntɹi/
  • US [ˈkʰʌnt̠ɹ̠̊˔ʷi]
  • British /ˈkʌntɹɪj/

Country has 2 syllables, split coun·try in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-country.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Naomi_Persephone_Amethyst_(NaomiAmethyst)-country.wav, En-us-country.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of country

  • countries plural
  • counthry
  • cuntry
  • countrier comparative
  • more country comparative
  • countriest superlative
  • most country superlative

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does country mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    The territory of a nation; a sovereign state or a region once independent and still distinct in institutions, language, etc.

    These days corporate Germany looks rather different. Volkswagen, the country’s leading carmaker, wants to be the world’s biggest by 2018.

  2. 2

    A large area regarded as distinct from other areas, e.g. because it is inhabited by a specific group of people

    Basque Country

  3. 3

    UKAn area of land of undefined extent; a region, a district.

  4. 4

    UKAn 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

  5. 5

    A rural area, as opposed to a town or city; the countryside.

    I grew up in the country with a 12-gauge shotgun.

  6. 6

    The inhabitants or people of a district, region, or nation; the populace, the public.

    a scandal that rocked the country

  7. 7

    AustraliaTraditional lands of Indigenous people with embedded cultural, spiritual, cosmological, ecological, and physical attributes and values.

  8. 8

    Ellipsis of country music.

    a country song

adjective

  1. 1

    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.

  2. 2

    Of or connected to country music.

    They're mainly a hard rock band, but their new album sounds kinda country to me.

  3. 3

    IndiaOriginating in India rather than being imported from abroad.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Country in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchpays, contrée (region of land), campagne (the country, rural area, as opposed to the town…), country (country music), de la campagne, de province (of, from or pertaining to the countryside…)
GermanLand (region of land), Landschaft (the country, rural area, as opposed to the town…), ländlich, Land- (of, from or pertaining to the countryside…), Staat, Vaterland (nation state)
Portuguesepaís, nação (region of land), campo (the country, rural area, as opposed to the town…), rural, campestre (of, from or pertaining to the countryside…), países (nation state)
Spanishpaís, zona, territorio, hábitat (region of land), campo (the country, rural area, as opposed to the town…), de campo (of, from or pertaining to the countryside…)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

What to look up after country