county

¹ American  

[kaun-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  

[kaun-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

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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

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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 U.S. military has pivoted from fighting against Japan to helping the county fight the kaiju, as long as the Japanese are the ones risking their necks on the front lines.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 6, 2026

He is the county councillor for Three Fields and Great Notley, which includes MDP Wethersfield, where hundreds of asylum seekers are accommodated.

From BBC ● Nov. 6, 2026

The median county shifted about 11 percentage points toward the Democrats.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 5, 2026

Homelessness does not get solved without the help of the county, which generally oversees mental health services and drug intervention and rehab.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 5, 2026

Currently, Picnic’s mom is a private housekeeper, and she works in dozens of addresses across the county.

From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith

Mail votes postmarked by Election Day can also arrive through Tuesday, while Mississippi's 82 counties have until November 13 to certify their results.

From Barron's ● Nov. 6, 2026

To identify the insects, the research team conducted fieldwork at six blueberry farms in North Carolina's Pender, Sampson, Bladen, and New Hanover counties.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 6, 2026

Civil rights activists successfully sued cities and counties to draw district lines making it easier for Latinos to vote for Latino candidates.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 4, 2026

He will usher them through the chaos of the evening; sifting through datapoints, overreacting to turnout data, monitoring bellwether counties.

From Slate ● Nov. 4, 2026

Some people never left the counties where they were born, he said.

From "The Underground Railroad: A Novel" by Colson Whitehead

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