national
/ˈnaʃ.ə.nəl/adjective, noun
national is spelled N-A-T-I-O-N-A-L. The wrong spelling people search most is natinoal: about 40 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 1,429 of all searches for the word. National is an adjective meaning “Pertaining to a nation or country, especially as a whole; affecting, shared by, or existing throughout all of…”.
How many letters and syllables are in national?
| Letters | 8: N-A-T-I-O-N-A-L |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 324 times per million words; the 289th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, natinoal, about 40 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; 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 national?
National is spelled N-A-T-I-O-N-A-L. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 1,348 of the searches for national in either form.
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 national?
National appears 324 times per million words in written English, the 289th 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 national?
- UK /ˈnaʃ.ə.nəl/
- UK [ˈnaʃ.ə.nɫ̩]
- UK /ˈnaʃ.n̩əl/
National has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-national.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of national
- more national comparative
- most national superlative
- nat'l
- nationals plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does national mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Pertaining to a nation or country, especially as a whole; affecting, shared by, or existing throughout all of a nation; the state.
a national assembly · on the front page of every national newspaper
- 2
Belonging to or characteristic of a specific nation or country, as opposed to others.
this is their national dish · our national tendency to laugh at the French
- 3
archaicNationalistic; patriotic.
noun
- 1
A subject of a nation.
The diplomats were advised not to interact with any foreign nationals except on official duty.
- 2
A tournament in which participants from all over the nation compete.
After winning the regional tournament, the team advanced to the nationals.
- 3
A national newspaper.
- 4
Somebody born under the authority of a given country.
noun
- 1
A member of the National Party
- 2
Clipping of New Zealand National Party
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate national?
Wiktionary records 3 abbreviations of national: Nat'l, nat'l, natl..
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
National in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | national , nationale |
| German | national, Staats- , Staatsangehöriger, Staatsangehörige, Staatsbürger, Staatsbürgerin |
| Portuguese | nacional |
| Spanish | nacional, patrio , ciudadano |
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.
Where does national come from?
From Middle French national, corresponding to nation + -al.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).