nation

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   the people who live in a nation or country

   a statement that sums up the nation's mood

2. 2
   noun

   a federation of tribes (especially Native American tribes)

   the Shawnee nation

3. 3
   noun

   A historically constituted, stable community of people, formed based on a common language, territory, economic life, ethnicity and/or psychological make-up manifested in a common culture.

   The Roma are a nation without a country.

4. 4
   noun

   A sovereign state; (loosely, metonymic, proscribed) a country.

   Though legally single nations, many states comprise several distinct cultural or ethnic groups.

5. 5
   noun

   An association of students based on the birthplace or ethnicity of its members.

   Once widespread across Europe in medieval times, nations are now largely restricted to the ancient universities of Sweden and Finland.

6. 6
   noun

   A great number; a great deal.

   […]and what a nation of herbs he had procured to mollify her humours, &c. &c.[…]

7. 7
   noun

   In North America, an Indigenous people with federal and/or state recognition as such and (often also) their federally recognized territory.

   The Choctaw Nation is the third-largest federally recognized tribe in the United States and the second-largest Indian reservation in area.

8. 8
   noun

   Damnation.

   ... what the nation's the matter of that boy now ? If he's got them highsterics ag'in , I'll blister him from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet , sure as he's a - livin ' . " The doctor took up his hat and started out to meet[…]

Etymology

From Middle English nacioun, nacion, from Old French nacion, from Latin nātiōnem, accusative of nātiō (“nation”). Displaced native Old English þēod.