Countries

How to spell countries

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce countries

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does countries mean?

1. nounThe plural of country: distinct nations or sovereign states.

Countries in a sentence

• The trade agreement links several neighbouring countries.

• She has visited more than thirty countries for her job.

Where does countries come from?

Language of origin: French

This is the plural of 'country', which English took from the Old French 'contrée', meaning a region or a tract of land. That French word grew out of the Medieval Latin phrase 'terra contrata', literally 'land lying opposite' or 'land spread out before you', built on the Latin 'contra', meaning 'against' or 'opposite'. The original sense was simply the landscape that lay in view, which then broadened to mean a district, a homeland, and finally a sovereign nation. English adopted it in the 1200s, and the spelling kept the French 'ou' and the doubled 'tr' cluster that trip writers up today. When the singular ends in a consonant followed by 'y', English swaps the 'y' for 'ies' in the plural, which is exactly why 'country' becomes 'countries' rather than 'countrys'.

How the word is built

• countr- (from Old French contrée: land lying opposite, region)
• -ies (plural of nouns ending in consonant
• y)