NATIONALITY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does nationality mean? 

• NATIONALITY (noun)
  The noun NATIONALITY has 2 senses:

1. people having common origins or traditions and often comprising a nation

2. the status of belonging to a particular nation by birth or naturalization

  Familiarity information: NATIONALITY used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• NATIONALITY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

People having common origins or traditions and often comprising a nation

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Context example:

such images define their sense of nationality

Hypernyms ("nationality" is a kind of...):

people ((plural) any group of human beings (men or women or children) collectively)

Derivation:

national (concerned with or applicable to or belonging to an entire nation or country)

national (limited to or in the interests of a particular nation)

national (of or relating to or belonging to a nation or country)

national (of or relating to nationality)

national (characteristic of or peculiar to the people of a nation)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The status of belonging to a particular nation by birth or naturalization

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("nationality" is a kind of...):

position; status (the relative position or standing of things or especially persons in a society)

Derivation:

national (of or relating to or belonging to a nation or country)

 Context examples 

I could hear a lot of words often repeated, queer words, for there were many nationalities in the crowd; so I quietly got my polyglot dictionary from my bag and looked them out.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Venus and Jupiter will conjoin in Sagittarius, suggesting people from many nationalities will be present—this is just your cup of tea.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

They proved that a seal pup could swim or not swim at birth by stating the proposition very bellicosely and then following it up with an attack on the opposing man’s judgment, common sense, nationality, or past history.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

On our little walk along the quays, he made himself the most interesting companion, telling me about the different ships that we passed by, their rig, tonnage, and nationality, explaining the work that was going forward—how one was discharging, another taking in cargo, and a third making ready for sea—and every now and then telling me some little anecdote of ships or seamen or repeating a nautical phrase till I had learned it perfectly.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

As the cab drew up before the address indicated, the fog lifted a little and showed him a dingy street, a gin palace, a low French eating house, a shop for the retail of penny numbers and twopenny salads, many ragged children huddled in the doorways, and many women of many different nationalities passing out, key in hand, to have a morning glass; and the next moment the fog settled down again upon that part, as brown as umber, and cut him off from his blackguardly surroundings.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

A minority is a group that is outnumbered by persons who do not belong to it, often people with different nationality, religion, culture or lifestyle from that of the mainstream in the society; racial or ethnic groups officially recognized by the U.S. government as minority populations.

(Minority Group, NCI Thesaurus)

You, gentlemen, who by nationality, by heredity, or by the possession of natural gifts, are fitted to hold your respective places in the moving world, I take to witness that I am as sane as at least the majority of men who are in full possession of their liberties.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

In the population of Transylvania there are four distinct nationalities: Saxons in the South, and mixed with them the Wallachs, who are the descendants of the Dacians; Magyars in the West, and Szekelys in the East and North.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)