# country

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˈkʌntɹi/ · frequency rank #313

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

## 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).

## Easily confused with
- **county** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/country-vs-county)
- **counts** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/country-vs-counts)
- **courtly** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/country-vs-courtly)
- **Coventry** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/country-vs-coventry)
- **count** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/count-vs-country)
- **counted** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/counted-vs-country)
- **Connery** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/connery-vs-country)

## Common misspellings (11)
`ccountry`, `conutry`, `counntry`, `counrty`, `countrry`, `countryy`, `counttry`, `countyr`, `coutnry`, `cuontry`, `ocuntry`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/country