Counties

How to spell counties

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce counties

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does counties mean?

1. nounThe plural of county: the principal administrative divisions of a country or state.

Counties in a sentence

• The new policy will affect several rural counties across the state.

• Voters in three neighbouring counties reported long delays at the polls.

Where does counties come from?

Language of origin: French

This is the plural of 'county', which came into English through Anglo-Norman French 'counte' or 'conté', meaning the land governed by a count. That French word traced back to the Latin 'comitatus', meaning a body of companions or a retinue, formed on 'comes' (genitive 'comitis'), which literally meant 'companion' or 'one who goes with' someone of high rank. The word entered English in the 1300s, when much administrative vocabulary was borrowed from the Norman rulers. Although England never widely used the title 'count' for its own nobles, preferring 'earl', the territorial term 'county' stuck and became the standard unit of regional administration. The spelling trap lies in the plural: the final 'y' of 'county' becomes 'ies', producing 'counties' rather than the mistaken 'countys'.

How the word is built

• count(y) (from Old French conté: territory of a count)
• -ies (plural ending, y to ies)