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Country vs Territory - What's the difference?

country | territory |

As nouns the difference between country and territory

is that country is an area of land; a district, region while territory is a large extent or tract of land; a region; a country; a district.

As an adjective country

is from or in the countryside or connected with it.

country

English

Noun

(countries)
  • (label) An area of land; a district, region.
  • * 2010 , David Vann, The Observer , 7 Mar 2010:
  • We walk along flat, open country , red dirt and spinifex grass, a few short trees.
  • A set region of land having particular human occupation or agreed limits, especially inhabited by members of the same race, language speakers etc., or associated with a given person, occupation, species etc.
  • * 2007 , Chris Moss, The Guardian , 17 Feb 2007:
  • This is condor country - the only region this far east where you can see the magnificent vulture - and a small national park straddling the passes, El Condorito, is a good stopover for walkers and birders.
  • The territory of a nation, especially an independent nation state or formerly independent nation; a political entity asserting ultimate authority over a geographical area.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1935, author= George Goodchild
  • , title=Death on the Centre Court, chapter=5 , passage=By one o'clock the place was choc-a-bloc. […] The restaurant was packed, and the promenade between the two main courts and the subsidiary courts was thronged with healthy-looking youngish people, drawn to the Mecca of tennis from all parts of the country .}}
  • * 1994 , (Nelson Mandela), Long Walk to Freedom , Abacus 2010, p. 3:
  • It is a beautiful country of rolling hills, fertile valleys, and a thousand rivers and streams which keep the landscape green even in winter.
  • * 2010 , The Economist , 3 Feb 2011:
  • These days corporate Germany looks rather different. Volkswagen, the country ’s leading carmaker, wants to be the world’s biggest by 2018.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=68, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= T time , passage=The ability to shift profits to low-tax countries' by locating intellectual property in them, which is then licensed to related businesses in high-tax ' countries , is often assumed to be the preserve of high-tech companies.}}
  • *, II.17:
  • *:I was borne and brought up in the Countrie , and amidst husbandry.
  • * 2000 , Alexander Chancellor, The Guardian , 4 Mar.:
  • I have always thought that one of the main reasons for the popularity of blood sports in the country is the pointlessness of going outdoors with no purpose or destination in mind.
  • Country music.
  • (label) The rock through which a vein runs.
  • Derived terms

    /* Derived terms */ * country mile * countryside * countrywide * high country * old country

    See also

    *

    Adjective

    (-)
  • From or in the countryside or connected with it.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5 , passage=When this conversation was repeated in detail within the hearing of the young woman in question, and undoubtedly for his benefit, Mr. Trevor threw shame to the winds and scandalized the Misses Brewster then and there by proclaiming his father to have been a country storekeeper.}}
  • Of or connected to country music.
  • Statistics

    * 1000 English basic words ----

    territory

    English

    Noun

    (territories)
  • A large extent or tract of land; a region; a country; a district.
  • (Canada) One of three of Canada's federated entities, located in the country's Arctic, with fewer powers than a province and created by Act of Parliament rather than by the Constitution: Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut.
  • A geographic area under control of a single governing entity such as state or municipality; an area whose borders are determined by the scope of political power rather than solely by natural features such as rivers and ridges.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Boundary problems , passage=Economics is a messy discipline: too fluid to be a science, too rigorous to be an art. Perhaps it is fitting that economists’ most-used metric, gross domestic product (GDP), is a tangle too. GDP measures the total value of output in an economic territory . Its apparent simplicity explains why it is scrutinised down to tenths of a percentage point every month.}}
  • (zoology) An area that an animal of a particular species consistently defends against its conspecifics.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011, date=October 1, author=Tom Fordyce, work=BBC Sport
  • , title= Rugby World Cup 2011: England 16-12 Scotland , passage=Scotland had the territory and the momentum, forcing England into almost twice as many tackles and rattling them repeatedly at set-pieces.}}
  • * 12 July 2012 , Sam Adams, AV Club Ice Age: Continental Drift
  • The matter of whether the world needs a fourth Ice Age movie pales beside the question of why there were three before it, but Continental Drift feels less like an extension of a theatrical franchise than an episode of a middling TV cartoon, lolling around on territory that’s already been settled.

    Derived terms

    * come with the territory * territorial * Territorial Army * territoriality * territorially * territorial waters