nationality

noun

1. 1

   Legal membership of a particular nation or state, by origin, birth, naturalization, ownership, allegiance or otherwise.

   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.

   Please include your nationality on the form.

   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.

2. 2

   A people sharing a common origin, culture and/or language, and possibly constituting a nation-state.

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

3. 3

   archaicNational, i.e. ethnic and/or cultural, character or identity.

   […]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.

4. 4

   archaicNationalism or patriotism.

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

5. 5

   obsoletePolitical existence, independence or unity as a national entity.

Forms

plural

nationalities