county

¹ American  

[koun-tee] / ˈkaʊn ti /

noun

• counties
  plural

1. the largest administrative division of a U.S. state.

   Miami, Florida, is in Dade County.

2. one of the chief administrative divisions of a country or state, as in Great Britain and Ireland.

3. one of the larger divisions for purposes of local administration, as in Canada and New Zealand.

4. the territory of a county, especially its rural areas.

   We farmed out in the county before moving to town.

5. the inhabitants of a county.

   It was supposed to be a secret, but you told the whole county.

6. the domain of a count or earl.

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county ² American  

[koun-tee] / ˈkaʊn ti /

noun

Obsolete.

1. count.

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county British  

/ ˈkaʊntɪ /

noun

1. 1. any of the administrative or geographic subdivisions of certain states, esp any of the major units into which England and Wales are or have been divided for purposes of local government

   2. ( as modifier )

      county cricket

2. an electoral division in a rural area

3. obsolete the lands under the jurisdiction of a count or earl

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adjective

1. informal having the characteristics and habits of the inhabitants of country houses and estates, esp an upper-class accent and an interest in horses, dogs, etc

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• counties
  plural

Etymology

Origin of county¹

1250–1300; Middle English counte < Anglo-French counté, Old French cunté, conte < Late Latin comitātus imperial seat, office of a comes ( see count ²), equivalent to Latin comit-, stem of comes + -ātus -ate ³ (or by reanalysis of Latin comitātus escort, retinue, originally verbal noun of comitārī to accompany, derivative of comes

Origin of county²

1540–50; < Anglo-French counte count ²; -y by confusion with county ¹

Explanation

A county is a specific region of a state or country. While the United States is made up of 50 states, it also has over 3000 counties. In the U.S., a county is a separate administrative area of a state — in other words, there is a local government that manages each individual county. In some parts of the country, there are town governments in addition to county governments, both of which are subordinate to the state government. The states range from having three counties (Delaware) to 254 counties (Texas). The Latin root of county is comitatus, "jurisdiction of a count."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

county counties

The trust said it was partly due to the unusually hot weather but also the result of increased surveying and monitoring in the county.

From BBC ● Aug. 30, 2026

At Aldbury Nowers, near Tring, the leafhopper Zygina hyperici was recorded for the first time in the county since 1916.

From BBC ● Aug. 30, 2026

Johnson also asked a chatbot which Medicare Advantage plan serving her county in Virginia had the most complaints.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 28, 2026

“The trial was hard fought, and the county of Riverside denied any responsibility throughout the entire trial,” the family’s attorney, Christian Contreras, said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 27, 2026

Sir George Lynn, Colonel Dent, and Mr. Eshton discussed politics, or county affairs, or justice business.

From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë

The strongest winds of the weekend are expected on Saturday across southern counties of England and Wales as well as the Channel Islands.

From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2026

Cities, counties and school districts in California say they rarely have the means to defend themselves against old claims.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026

The Bug fire — which burned just north of the Hawk fire and in portions of California’s Lassen and Sierra counties — started Aug. 8 and charred nearly 94,000 acres.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026

It covers 77 Texas counties and 517 miles of the 1,954-mile-long U.S.-Mexico border.

From Salon ● Aug. 24, 2026

Finals of schoolboy sports, dog racing, strange little competitions in the remoter counties, all these are grist to our hungry mill.

From "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier