nationality

plural nationalities

1. Legal membership of a particular nation or state, by origin, birth, naturalization, ownership, allegiance or otherwise.First known use 18th c.

   Please include your nationality on the form.

   4 more examples

   By living in the country for five years, you are entitled to get nationality.

   Stefi was born in Spain to a Brazilian father and a Chilean mother, so is eligible for three nationalities.

   One reason why many Asian countries oppose dual nationality is a belief that it can create divided loyalties among citizens, said Jelena Dzankic, co-director of the Global Citizenship Observatory (GLOBALCIT), an international citizenship research network.

   2021 March 15, Jessie Yeung, “These Asian countries are giving dual citizens an ultimatum on nationality – and loyalty”, in CNN

   Guatemala has pledged a 40% increase in deportation flights carrying Guatemalans and migrants of other nationalities from the United States, President Bernardo Arévalo announced Wednesday during a press conference with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

   2025 February 5, Michael Rios, “Guatemala to increase deportation flights from US carrying migrants from other countries”, in CNN

   Synonyms: affiliation, allegiance, ancestry, citizenship, descent, enfranchisement, ethnicity, national status

2. A people sharing a common origin, culture and/or language, and possibly constituting a nation-state.First known use 19th c.

   Rosa Luxemburg held that the recognition of the right of nationalities to self-determination was one of the Bolsheviks' gravest mistakes.

   1978 [1976], Leszek Kołakowski, translated by P[aul] S[teven] Falla, Main Currents of Marxism, volume II: The Golden Age, Oxford: Clarendon Press, translation of Główne nurty marksizmu: rozwój (in Polish), →ISBN, →OCLC, page 92

   Synonyms: clan, confederation, cultural group, culture, denomination, ethnic group, ethnicity, faith

3. archaicNational, i.e. ethnic and/or cultural, character or identity.First known use 17th c.

   […]permit me to say that the Harranians were Arabs and that the Arabs in occupying Spain and Andalusia did not lose their nationality; they remained Arabs. […] The fact that they preserved their former religion, Sabaeanism, does not mean they should be considered foreign to the Arab nationality.

   1968, Sayyid Jamāl ad-Dīn, “Answer of Jamāl ad-Dīn to Renan”, in Nikki R. Keddie, translated by Nikki R. Keddie, An Islamic Response to Imperialism, University of California Press, →LCCN, page 185

   Synonyms: ancestry, color, colour, ethnicity, identity, origin

4. archaicNationalism or patriotism.First known use 18th c.

   ‘You are, to be sure, wonderfully free from that nationality: but so it happens, that you employ the only Scotch shoe-black in London.’

   1791, James Boswell, Life of Johnson, Oxford, published 2008, page 599

   Synonyms: nationalism, patriotic sentiment, patriotism

5. obsoletePolitical existence, independence or unity as a national entity.First known use 19th c.

   Synonyms: autarchy, autonomy, freedom, independence, liberty, nationhood, self-determination, self-government