Nation:
Nation means the community or race of people with shared culture, traditions, history and language whether scattered or confined to one country. A nation is a large group of people with strong bonds of identity- “an imagined community”, a tribe on a grand scale. The nation may have a claim to statehood or self-rule, but it does not necessarily enjoy the state of its own. National identity is typically based on shared culture, religion, history, language or ethnicity.
Country:
A country is a region identified as a distinct entity in political geography. A country may be an independent sovereign state or one that is occupied by another state, as a non-sovereign or formerly sovereign political division or a geographic region associated with sets of previously independent or differently associated peoples with distinct political characteristics.
Differences:
| Basis | Nation | Country |
|---|---|---|
| Definition (www.oxforddictionaries.com) |
A large body of people united by common descent, history, culture, or language, inhabiting a particular state or territory | A nation with its own government, occupying a particular territory |
| Synonyms | People, race, society, community, dominion, empire | Provincial, rural, state, region, soil, bucolic, commonwealth |
| Antonyms | Kingdom, boundary, aristocracy, depose, private, absolutism, bound | Beginning, civic, chief, brink, burgh, autocracy, metropolitan |
| Word origin | The word nation was originated from Middle English: via Old French from Latin natio(n-), from nat- ‘born’, from the verb nasci. | The word country was originated from Middle English: from Old French cuntree, from medieval Latin contrata (terra) ‘(land) lying opposite’, from Latin contra ‘against, opposite’. |
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| Sovereignty | A nation does not have to have its governing power to be called a nation. Nation can be a part of a country. | A country has its own governing power. |
| Territory | A nation needs not have such a specific territory. | A country is situated within a specific territory. |
| State | It mainly refers to a sovereign state. | It can be a sovereign or a non-sovereign state. |
| Reference | It is defined in terms of people and a common government | It is defined in a geographical aspect. |
| Sovereignty | Not all nations are sovereign. | All countries a sovereign. |
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