a large body of people, associated with a particular territory, that is sufficiently conscious of its unity to seek or to possess a government peculiarly its own

The president spoke to the nation about the new tax.

the territory or country itself

the nations of Central America.

a member tribe of an American Indian confederation.

an aggregation of persons of the same ethnic family, often speaking the same language or cognate languages.

noun

body politic , commonwealth , community , democracy , domain , dominion , empire , land , monarchy , people , populace , population , principality , public , race , realm , republic , society , sovereignty , state , tribe , unionnotes:country really refers to geographical characteristics while nation refers to political and social characteristics; country comes from latin contrata (terra) \'the landscape in front of one , the landscape lying opposite to the view\' and nation is from latin nation-/natio \'race , class of person\'a nation is made up of states - and a country is a nation defined geographically , country , polity , territory , union