Country

A country is, generally speaking, a political state or nation or its territory.

The word is somewhat semantically ambiguous; notably the United Kingdom, where English originated, is a country consisting of the countries of England, Scotland and Wales while Northern Ireland also forms part of the UK, and may be viewed as either a country or a province.

Country shouldn’t be confused with county, which has similar spelling.

Countries generally lack an article, however there are countries that have them:

• The Bahamas
• The Solomon Islands
• The Marshall Islands
• The Gambia
• The Ivory Coast
• The Maldives
• The Netherlands
• The United Kingdom
• The United States
• The United Arab Emirates