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county

Pronunciation: /ˈkaʊnti/

The English word “county” has 5 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. The land ruled by a count or a countess.
  2. An administrative or geographical region of various countries, including Bhutan, Canada, China, Croatia, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Romania, South Korea, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and 47 of the 50 United States (excluding Alaska, Connecticut, and Louisiana).
  3. A definitive geographic region, without direct administrative functions.
  4. A jail operated by a county government.

adjective

  1. Characteristic of a ‘county family’; representative of the gentry or aristocracy of a county.

Etymology

From Middle English countee, counte, conte, from Anglo-Norman counté, Old French conté (French comté), from Latin comitātus (“jurisdiction of a count”), from comes (“count, earl”). Cognate with Spanish condado (“county”) and Italian contea (“county”). Doublet of comitatus, borrowed directly from Latin. Mostly displaced native Old English sċīr, whence Modern English shire.

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.