State vs. Country — What's the Difference?
By Tayyaba Rehman — Updated on October 28, 2023
A state is a political entity within a country, often with its own government; a country is an independent nation with its own sovereignty and territory.
Difference Between State and Country
Table of Contents
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Key Differences
State and Country are terms that refer to political entities, each with its distinct characteristics. While a State usually denotes a division or a part of a larger entity, a Country typically refers to a sovereign territory with recognized borders and governance.
A State, in many instances, represents a region within a country with its own administrative structures and local governance. However, a Country stands for an independent entity with its own national government, military, and foreign relations.
Countries can be comprised of several states, like the United States, which has 50 states. Each State in the U.S. has its own constitution and set of laws but remains under the broader federal law of the Country.
In international discourse, Countries have their unique representation, flag, and voice. On the contrary, States, while having a degree of autonomy, may not possess an independent representation on global platforms.
It's essential to note that the term "State" can also refer to an entire country in international contexts. For instance, the "Member States" of the United Nations refer to countries, not subdivisions within them.
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Comparison Chart
Sovereignty
Often lacks full sovereignty
Has full sovereignty
Role
Subdivision or part of a larger entity
Independent nation or territory
Governance
Has its own local governance but remains under the broader national law
Has its own national government and sets its own foreign policy
Representation
Typically does not have independent international representation
Has its unique representation, flag, and voice on global platforms
Usage Context
Can refer to a region within a country or an entire country in international discourse
Typically refers to an independent nation
Compare with Definitions
State
A territory with its government within a larger country.
Texas is a state in the United States.
Country
Rural districts, including farmland.
She loves the peace and quiet of the country.
State
A nation or territory considered an organized political community.
The State must ensure the rights of its citizens.
Country
A country is a distinct territorial body or political entity (i.e. a nation).
State
A particular condition or circumstance.
He's in a state of confusion.
Country
A nation with its own government, occupying a particular territory
The country's increasingly precarious economic position
Spain, Italy, and other European countries
State
Ceremonial pomp or grandeur.
The president arrived in full state.
Country
Districts and small settlements outside large urban areas or the capital
A country lane
The airfield is right out in the country
State
A condition or mode of being, as with regard to circumstances
The office was in a state of confusion.
Country
An area or region with regard to its physical features
A tract of wild country
State
A condition of being in a stage or form, as of structure, growth, or development
The fetal state.
Country
Short for country music
State
A mental or emotional condition
In a manic state.
Country
A nation or state.
State
(Informal) A condition of excitement or distress
Was in a state over going to the prom.
Country
The territory of a nation or state; land.
State
Social position or rank.
Country
The people of a nation or state; populace
The whole country will profit from the new economic reforms.
State
(Physics) The condition of a physical system with regard to phase, form, composition, or structure
Ice is the solid state of water.
Country
The land of a person's birth or citizenship
Foreign travel is restricted in his country.
State
Ceremony; pomp
Foreign leaders dining in state at the White House.
Country
A region, territory, or large tract of land distinguishable by features of topography, biology, or culture
Hill country.
Bible country.
State
The supreme public power within a sovereign political entity
The state intervening in the economy.
Country
An area or expanse outside cities and towns; a rural area
A vacation in the country.
State
The sphere of supreme civil power within a given polity
Matters of state.
Country
The people of a district who are eligible for jury service.
State
A specific kind of government
The socialist state.
Country
A jury.
State
A body politic, especially one constituting a nation
The states of Eastern Europe.
Country
(Informal) Country music.
State
One of the more or less internally autonomous territorial and political units composing a federation under a sovereign government
The 48 contiguous states of the Union.
Country
Of, relating to, or typical of the country
A country road.
Country cooking.
State
Of or relating to a body politic or to an internally autonomous territorial or political unit constituting a federation under one government
A monarch dealing with state matters.
The department that handles state security.
Country
Of or relating to country music.
State
Owned and operated by a state
State universities.
Country
(chiefly British) An area of land; a district, region.
State
To set forth in words; declare.
Country
A set region of land having particular human occupation or agreed limits, especially inhabited by members of the same race, speakers of the same language etc., or associated with a given person, occupation, species etc.
State
A condition; a set of circumstances applying at any given time.
A state of being
A state of emergency
Country
The territory of a nation, especially an independent nation state or formerly independent nation; a political entity asserting ultimate authority over a geographical area; a sovereign state.
State
(physics) A complete description of a system, consisting of parameters that determine all properties of the system.
Country
A rural area, as opposed to a town or city; the countryside.
State
A mess; disorder.
Absolute state
In a state
Country
Ellipsis of country music
A country song
A country singer
A country festival
State
(computing) The stable condition of a processor during a particular clock cycle.
In the fetch state, the address of the next instruction is placed on the address bus.
Country
(mining) The rock through which a vein runs.
State
(computing) The set of all parameters relevant to a computation.
The state here includes a set containing all names seen so far.
Country
From or in the countryside or connected with it.
State
(computing) The values of all parameters at some point in a computation.
A debugger can show the state of a program at any breakpoint.
Country
Of or connected to country music.
State
(sciences) The physical property of matter as solid, liquid, gas or plasma.
Country
Originating in India rather than being imported from Europe or elsewhere.
State
(obsolete) Highest and stationary condition, as that of maturity between growth and decline, or as that of crisis between the increase and the abating of a disease; height; acme.
Country
A tract of land; a region; the territory of an independent nation; (as distinguished from any other region, and with a personal pronoun) the region of one's birth, permanent residence, or citizenship.
Return unto thy country, and to thy kindred.
I might have learned this by my last exile,that change of countries cannot change my state.
Many a famous realmAnd country, whereof here needs no account
State
High social standing or circumstance.
Country
Rural regions, as opposed to a city or town.
As they walked, on their way into the country.
God made the covatry, and man made the town.
Only very great men were in the habit of dividing the year between town and country.
State
Pomp, ceremony, or dignity.
In state
The President's body will lie in state at the Capitol.
Country
The inhabitants or people of a state or a region; the populace; the public. Hence: (a) One's constituents. (b) The whole body of the electors of state; as, to dissolve Parliament and appeal to the country.
All the country in a general voiceCried hate upon him.
State
Rank; condition; quality.
Country
A jury, as representing the citizens of a country.
State
Condition of prosperity or grandeur; wealthy or prosperous circumstances; social importance.
Country
The rock through which a vein runs.
State
A chair with a canopy above it, often standing on a dais; a seat of dignity; also, the canopy itself.
Country
Pertaining to the regions remote from a city; rural; rustic; as, a country life; a country town; the country party, as opposed to city.
State
(obsolete) A great person, a dignitary; a lord or prince.
Country
Destitute of refinement; rude; unpolished; rustic; not urbane; as, country manners.
State
(obsolete) Estate, possession.
Country
Pertaining, or peculiar, to one's own country.
She, bowing herself towards him, laughing the cruel tyrant to scorn, spake in her country language.
State
A polity.
Country
The territory occupied by a nation;
He returned to the land of his birth
He visited several European countries
State
Any sovereign polity; a national or city-state government.
Country
A politically organized body of people under a single government;
The state has elected a new president
African nations
Students who had come to the nation's capitol
The country's largest manufacturer
An industrialized land
State
A political division of a federation retaining a notable degree of autonomy, as in the United States, Mexico, Nigeria, or India.
Country
The people who live in a nation or country;
A statement that sums up the nation's mood
The news was announced to the nation
The whole country worshipped him
State
(obsolete) A form of government other than a monarchy.
Country
An area outside of cities and towns;
His poetry celebrated the slower pace of life in the country
State
(anthropology) A society larger than a tribe. A society large enough to form a state in the sense of a government.
Country
A particular geographical region of indefinite boundary (usually serving some special purpose or distinguished by its people or culture or geography);
It was a mountainous area
Bible country
State
An element of the range of the random variables that define a random process.
Country
A distinct territorial body or political entity that is independent.
France is a country in Europe.
State
The lexical aspect (aktionsart) of verbs or predicates that do not change over time.
Country
The land or territory of a nation.
The countryside in this country is breathtaking.
State
(transitive) To declare to be a fact.
He stated that he was willing to help.
Country
The people of a nation.
The country voted in favor of the new law.
State
(transitive) To make known.
State your intentions.
Country
A region with particular characteristics or a particular history.
Wine country is a popular destination for tourists.
State
(obsolete) Stately.
State
The circumstances or condition of a being or thing at any given time.
State is a term nearly synonymous with "mode," but of a meaning more extensive, and is not exclusively limited to the mutable and contingent.
Declare the past and present state of things.
Keep the state of the question in your eye.
State
Rank; condition; quality; as, the state of honor.
Thy honor, state, and seat is due to me.
State
Condition of prosperity or grandeur; wealthy or prosperous circumstances; social importance.
She instructed him how he should keep state, and yet with a modest sense of his misfortunes.
Can this imperious lord forget to reign,Quit all his state, descend, and serve again?
State
Appearance of grandeur or dignity; pomp.
Where least of state there most of love is shown.
State
A chair with a canopy above it, often standing on a dais; a seat of dignity; also, the canopy itself.
His high throne, . . . under stateOf richest texture spread.
When he went to court, he used to kick away the state, and sit down by his prince cheek by jowl.
State
Estate; possession.
Your state, my lord, again is yours.
State
A person of high rank.
State
The principal persons in a government.
The bold designPleased highly those infernal states.
State
The bodies that constitute the legislature of a country; as, the States-general of Holland.
State
A form of government which is not monarchial, as a republic.
Well monarchies may own religion's name,But states are atheists in their very fame.
State
A political body, or body politic; the whole body of people who are united under one government, whatever may be the form of the government; a nation.
Municipal law is a rule of conduct prescribed by the supreme power in a state.
The Puritans in the reign of Mary, driven from their homes, sought an asylum in Geneva, where they found a state without a king, and a church without a bishop.
State
In the United States, one of the commonwealths, or bodies politic, the people of which make up the body of the nation, and which, under the national constitution, stand in certain specified relations with the national government, and are invested, as commonwealths, with full power in their several spheres over all matters not expressly inhibited.
State
Highest and stationary condition, as that of maturity between growth and decline, or as that of crisis between the increase and the abating of a disease; height; acme.
I do not, brother,Infer as if I thought my sister's stateSecure without all doubt or controversy.
We hoped to enjoy with ease what, in our situation, might be called the luxuries of life.
And, O, what man's condition can be worseThan his whom plenty starves and blessings curse?
State
A statement; also, a document containing a statement.
State
Stately.
State
Belonging to the state, or body politic; public.
State
To set; to settle; to establish.
I myself, though meanest stated,And in court now almost hated.
Who calls the council, states the certain day.
State
To express the particulars of; to set down in detail or in gross; to represent fully in words; to narrate; to recite; as, to state the facts of a case, one's opinion, etc.
State
The group of people comprising the government of a sovereign state;
The state has lowered its income tax
State
The territory occupied by one of the constituent administrative districts of a nation;
His state is in the deep south
State
A politically organized body of people under a single government;
The state has elected a new president
African nations
Students who had come to the nation's capitol
The country's largest manufacturer
An industrialized land
State
The way something is with respect to its main attributes;
The current state of knowledge
His state of health
In a weak financial state
State
The federal department in the UnitedStates that sets and maintains foreign policies;
The Department of State was created in 1789
State
The territory occupied by a nation;
He returned to the land of his birth
He visited several European countries
State
A state of depression or agitation;
He was in such a state you just couldn't reason with him
State
(chemistry) the three traditional states of matter are solids (fixed shape and volume) and liquids (fixed volume and shaped by the container) and gases (filling the container);
The solid state of water is called ice
State
Express in words;
He said that he wanted to marry her
Tell me what is bothering you
State your opinion
State your name
State
Put before;
I submit to you that the accused is guilty
State
Indicate through a symbol, formula, etc.;
Can you express this distance in kilometers?
State
The civil government of a country.
The state has imposed new tax regulations.
Common Curiosities
Can a state have its own flag and anthem?
Yes, many states have their own flags and anthems, especially in federal systems.
Is a state always a part of a country?
Typically, a state is a subdivision within a country, but "state" can also refer to an entire nation in some contexts.
Is the term "nation" synonymous with "country"?
Generally, "nation" refers to a group of people with shared identity, while "country" refers to a political entity. However, they can be used interchangeably in some contexts.
Do all states have the same level of autonomy?
No, the degree of autonomy varies based on the country's governance system.
Can the term "state" refer to the entire government?
Yes, "state" can also refer to the civil government of a country.
Is every country recognized by all other countries?
No, recognition of countries can be political, and not all countries are universally recognized.
Which has more sovereignty, a state or a country?
A country has full sovereignty, while a state often lacks complete sovereignty.
Can a country have no states?
Yes, many countries are not divided into states.
What's the difference between "countryside" and "country"?
"Countryside" refers to rural areas, while "country" can refer to an entire nation or territory.
Can a state secede from a country?
The ability for a state to secede depends on the country's constitution and laws.
Which is larger, a state or a country?
Typically, a country is larger as it encompasses states, but this can vary based on definitions.
Can "state" and "province" be used interchangeably?
In some contexts, they can be, but it depends on the country's administrative divisions.
Which term, state or country, is used in the context of the United Nations?
Both are used, but "Member States" in the UN context refers to countries, not subdivisions.
Do both states and countries have capitals?
Yes, countries have national capitals, and states often have their own state capitals.
Are all countries divided into states?
No, the subdivisions within countries vary and might be called provinces, regions, or other names.
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Written by
Tayyaba RehmanTayyaba Rehman is a distinguished writer, currently serving as a primary contributor to askdifference.com. As a researcher in semantics and etymology, Tayyaba's passion for the complexity of languages and their distinctions has found a perfect home on the platform. Tayyaba delves into the intricacies of language, distinguishing between commonly confused words and phrases, thereby providing clarity for readers worldwide.
